Fianna Fáil’s Mary Butler says over four thousand hospital bed days have been lost through delayed discharges in the first 8 months of the year at University Hospital Waterford.

Patients are classified in this way when they no longer need to be cared for in an acute hospital setting.

Deputy Butler says older people don’t have access to the facilities they need like more home help hours and more homecare support.

She says there needs to be more respite facilities and easier access to the fair deal scheme.

Mary Butler says when everything is in order the scheme takes up to six weeks for a decision and that needs to be sped up to help people
get into nursing homes quicker.

Meanwhile,  nearly half a million people missed hospital outpatient appointments last year, that’s around 1,300 people a day.

The HSE figures released to the Irish Times shows that almost 20 percent were related to STIs and 18 percent were psychiatry appointments.

Nearly one fifth of patients failed to show up at Mayo University hospital last year, while St James’s in Dublin had 17% no shows.

It comes as the HSE struggles to cut waiting lists in hospitals around the country.