More than 18,000 bed days were lost last month as a result of delayed hospital discharges, it was revealed yesterday.
Last month alone there were 599 delayed discharges across Ireland.
As a result, 18,662 bed days were lost, HSE figures obtained by Fianna Fail TD Mary Butler said.
A delayed discharge means a patient is well enough to be allowed to leave hospital but cannot be due to a number of reasons.
These include a lack of available home help hours, home care packages or community-based respite support in nursing homes or rehabilitative centres. Ms Butler, who is the party’s spokeswoman for older people, yesterday said the latest figures reveal the urgency with which home care services are needed.
She added the promised extra 800,000 hours of home help must be delivered in 2019 so elderly people may recover in their own space.
Ms Butler said: “The HSE is not meeting its target of providing home help to 53,000 people.
“The actual number receiving home care is 52,382 – 618 fewer than the HSE commitment.
“This deficit is not too far removed from the number of delayed discharges in our hospitals.
“Similarly, if the levels of home help and support that we saw in the first five months of this year continue then we will come in some 400,000 hours short of what was promised by the HSE this year.
“It is essential that home help targets are met.
“Older people want to be in their own homes and not to be stuck in hospitals which are already facing serious overcrowding pressures.”
