Sir, – I had to laugh and yet cry at the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) comments on the need to have regulatory standards in the domiciliary older people homecare sector ("Homecare services in 'dire need' of regulation, watchdog warns", December 15th).
It is a bit like Christmas carols; they come every year.
The sad testament of every government, minister of health and HSE chief executive in the past 11 years is that homecare standards and regulations were agreed between the main private homecare association and the HSE back as far as 2010 and yet absolutely nothing has been done to introduce them.
There is no interest in the State to introduce these despite promises and now we have yet another quasi-State body in Hiqa requesting them.
It is my unfortunate conclusion that Government will continue ignore this issue with vulnerable people until TDs and their families cannot get into an acute hospital bed because they are full of acute patients aged over 85 .
This vista is not far away with our demographic profile of older people. – Yours, etc,
Dr JONATHAN ROTH,
Limerick.