Waiting for HSE Home Support

The short answer

Only the Home Support Office handling the application can tell you where it stands. Once a completed application form is received, the HSE arranges an assessment of need — usually carried out by a public health nurse, physiotherapist or occupational therapist — and writes to the person with the outcome.

Published waiting-list figures describe a system at a point in time. They cannot tell you when one person's service will start.

If circumstances change while you wait

The HSE's guidance is to contact the local Home Support Office if circumstances change. The HSE may then review the support and increase it, reduce it or keep it the same.

How published waiting figures are grouped

Different official datasets count different things. Some report a single total; others separate people waiting for a first service from existing recipients waiting for additional hours, or report people approved whose service has not started. These are categories that may appear in a particular published dataset, and CareMap only shows a category when the source itself defines it.

Because of that, the office handling the application is the only reliable answer to where one application stands.

What to do while waiting — CareMap practical advice

• Keep a short dated note of the difficulties, so you can describe specifics if circumstances change
• Contact the local Home Support Office if circumstances change
• Ask locally about meals delivery, day services and community or voluntary visiting
• Speak to their GP about any health change or new symptom
• Sort the practical safety items you control: lighting, loose rugs, a phone within reach
• Private home care may be worth considering as an optional temporary or top-up arrangement if it is affordable — keep the Home Support Office informed of relevant changes, and confirm the status of the public application with the office directly

Questions worth asking the office

• Has the completed application been received?
• Has an assessment of need been arranged or completed?
• How and when will we be told the outcome?
• Who should we contact if the situation changes?

What CareMap is tracking

The Home Support Tracker records published waiting figures as dated observations with their geography and source. Where we have not yet transcribed an official document, we say so rather than estimate. CareMap is independent and is not part of, or endorsed by, the HSE.

Sources

• Health Service Executive (HSE) — After you apply for the Home Support Service
  Open the official source
• Health Service Executive (HSE) — Contact a Home Support Office
  Open the official source
• Health Service Executive (HSE) — PQ 45149-26 and 45150-26 — Deputy Malcolm Byrne: home support waiting numbers, HSE response of 17 June 2026
  Open the official source
• Health Service Executive (HSE) — PQ 65239-25 — Deputy John Paul O'Shea: home support waiting lists requested by CHO, supplied by Health Region
  Open the official source