An elderly disabled woman was forced to endure the indignity of wearing a nappy and having it changed by her brother because a home help was too busy to visit her.

The Sligo woman's plight was revealed following a Health Service Executive (HSE) investigation earlier this year.

A confidential investigation report, obtained by the Irish Independent, detailed how a concerned relative wrote a harrowing letter to the HSE highlighting the woman's hardship.

Details of the case come against a background of cuts in home-help hours to vulnerable people and mounting concerns over the quality of the service on offer.

The Sligo woman was found by her relative "sitting inside a window, where she sits for hours, wearing a nappy, as going to the toilet is a struggle for her". When asked if her home help had visited that day, the woman admitted she had not come in a week.

The letter revealed how "she had started to wear nappies on a permanent basis indoors where her brother has been changing them for her"

The HSE's public health nursing department, which investigated the case, told the woman's relative the home help had a "very full case load" and was sometimes unable to call due to pressure of work. The report said "this was unsatisfactory" and a new home help was assigned to her.