A disabled child has been waiting over 17 months for a replacement buggy that is suitable for her complex needs. 

Kayla turned three in June and, although she was born stable, not long after her birth she spent seven months in hospital. 

On Lunchtime Live, her mother, Stacey, said she is hugely frustrated by the health service’s treatment of disabled children. 

 “We see everything that’s going on with school places - there’s no school places, the spinal surgeries and people on waiting lists,” she said. 

“What a lot of people don’t realise is there’s people waiting to even get on those waiting lists, so those numbers don’t even reflect that.

“There’s no interventions, there’s no therapies.” 

Stacey added that the families of with disabled children feel they are being ignored, despite so many of them “begging and pleading for help”. 

She continued that she pays out of pocket for many of the private therapies that her daughter needs. 

“The part of this that I can’t provide is equipment,” she said. 

“I can’t fund everything; equipment costs thousands of thousands.” ]

'An urgent request'

She added that top of the list is a replacement buggy for disabled children that will keep Kayla safe and supported. 

The family got one last year, but it is faulty. 

“The day it arrived I noticed something wasn’t right and I contacted the team and we’ve had five engineers out to the house,” Stacey said. 

Despite this, the family is still waiting for a replacement 17 months on. 

“There’s a new buggy in the country and it’s been in the country seven weeks now,” she said. 

“I even offered to drive to Dublin to collect it myself but no, we need to wait for the engineers to bring it down. 

“They have to get a proper appointment and the physio has to be there, they all have to be available. 

“This is an urgent request.” 

In a statement to Newstalk, the HSE said they “will be speaking to the family concerned”. 

Main image: A handicapped child. Picture by: Alamy.com.