Older people's safety at risk

Home Help services will be on life support

Older & Bolder is deeply worried about health cuts and the damaging effects these will have on older people’s health and safety.

Patricia Conboy, Director of Older & Bolder, ‘I am deeply concerned about the recent cuts announced by the Minister and I believe that these cuts are unfair to older people; serious questions remain to be answered: Is the health and well being of older people to be compromised by these cuts? The Minister says that people are going into long term care too quickly why then reduce the community supports essential to enable older people live outside residential care? Home Help services, already thinly spread, will be on life support – Home care will not work with a 4 % cut to services which are already minimal.’

Ms Conboy continued, ‘Where is the Special Fund for Older People’s Services and supports that the Minister promised before Christmas? Effectively public nursing home care is being dismantled by the cuts announced in this Service Plan without public debate or the review of the Fair Deal and long-term care which was promised in the Programme for Government. I believe that is unfair and that this is not acceptable .One of the most depressing things about this Service Plan from the perspective of older people is the slow rate of progress on the planning elements of care for older people i.e. National Quality Guidelines for Home Care Services, National Single Assessment Tool (SAT), legislative proposals for Community Services.  These are areas of work that have been ongoing in HSE/DoH for several years without tangible progress. This not about money; It is about the wellbeing of older people, efficiency and achieving outcomes that will contribute to a more equitable system of health care.’