Call for Minister Reilly to reverse cuts to Home Care services

Older & Bolder is calling on Minister James Reilly TD to reverse the cuts to Home Care Services announced yesterday by the HSE.

Ms. Patricia Conboy, Director of Older & Bolder said: “We want to remind Minister Reilly of his own words in opposition in 2010 when he highlighted what was wrong with the HSE approach to cost-cutting.  It was, he said, ‘the lazy, easy way out to hit frontline services and hurt patients rather than find the necessary savings within waste and inefficiencies at the HSE’.

She continued “This is precisely the approach that has now been adopted by the HSE under Minister Reilly’s political leadership.  Of the cuts announced yesterday, 18% are applied to the most under-resourced and thinly stretched element of HSE services; that is home and community care services which are already failing to meet the needs of children with life- limiting illnesses, people with disabilities and older people. How can Minister Reilly stand by as the Director of Integrated Services in HSE, Ms. Laverne McGuinness tell us on national radio that ‘those most in need will have continuity of Home Care packages’ and, in the same breath, tells us that families may only need those services for a limited number of weeks ?  This will exacerbate the fears of families caring for relatives at home who are suffering with illness, disability, frailty.”

Ms. Conboy asked “When is the Minister going to come out in public and address the question of how he squares the clear contradictions between his stated commitment to home and community care both in opposition and in Government, and the cuts to which he has now given his blessing?  We are calling on Minister Reilly to honour the political commitments he has made and reverse these cruel cuts to Home Care services.”