The HSE South which includes Kilkenny, has established a helpline for those concerned about home help following this week’s Prime Time programme on home care services aired this week.
The HSE has received many calls to its Information Line to date with several of these calls resulting in complaints from clients and their families relating to home care services and these are now being dealt with by the HSE to ensure that any issues arising are resolved as quickly as possible and that alternative arrangements are put in place for these clients, if necessary.
If a member of the public wants to report a concern with a home care service they should contact the HSE’s Information line on 1850 24 1850. All concerns will be handled sensitively in cooperation with the client and their family.
The helpline can provide callers with details on how to make a complaint through the HSE’s ‘Your Service Your Say’ complaints process. It can also put callers in contact with one of the HSE’s dedicated Elder Abuse Officers around the country and it can provide callers with access to trained patient advocates who can represent a client or a family in having concerns addressed.
In a statement to the Kilkenny Advertiser Brian Egan, managing director of Bluebird Care which offers home help services in Kilkenny and Waterford said, “the [Prime Time] programme was very upsetting. I suppose the only good thing is that it highlights the poor standards of care from some providers and hopefully will mean we will see regulation sooner rather than later and also it highlights the importance of a carer’s role and how they can make a difference to the lives of so many people.
“I feel that we are doing things the right way and we are getting good feedback from our current customers. I am aware of people who received poor quality care in the past so that is one of the reasons I want to ensure the care we provide is to the highest standard. Training is a key focus for us and in fact we have 15 carers doing a Disability Training workshop this week.
“Bluebird Care adheres to stringent policies and procedures and operate to the UK-regulated standards in our Irish offices. In fact our office, which is just open since August was already audited by our head office’s general manager who was a district nurse in the UK for over 25 years and involved in training of carers for Bluebird Care in the UK,” he pointed out.
Mr Egan also welcomed anybody to the office to see their processes, policies and procedures, staff files and sample care plans.
“I believe that this will give people some confidence. One thing that I would like people to know is that there are some home care providers trying to do things the right way and there are so many really good carers out there,” he concluded.
In HSE South, which covers counties Kilkenny, Carlow, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, South Tipperary and Wexford, there are 15,053 clients in receipt of home care services with 99.6 per cent of those services directly provided by the HSE.
A statement also added, “the HSE is taking seriously the concerns raised in the Prime Time programme. Since we became aware of these issues on Thursday last, the following steps have been taken to address any issues:
• The HSE has so far made direct contact with over a hundred clients who are in receipt of services from the organisations featured in the Prime Time programme: the vast majority of these clients have indicated that they are satisfied with the care being provided to them. • Contact is being made with the organisations featured and a review of contractual arrangements in place for clients is underway.
• The HSE has been assured by one of the companies that staff members have been suspended pending a full investigation.
Services nationwide have been alerted to the issues raised by Prime Time so that they can review arrangements with service providers for those in receipt of Home Help or Home Care Packages over the coming days to ensure that they are appropriate to the clients needs.
Services nationwide are ensuring that reviews are planned and scheduled at agreed intervals for all clients whose home care is supported directly or indirectly by the HSE.
All Home Help and Home Care Package service providers have been asked to confirm compliance with training and qualification requirements for staff, appropriate vetting and Garda clearance in place etc.
