Carer shortage may deny patients chance to spend Christmas at home

A major shortage of home carers may force Meath patients may to stay in nursing homes over Christmas instead of spending the festive season at home, warned Cllr Ronan Moore.

Cllr Moore has called on the government to take urgent action to address the lack of available home support carers in County Meath following the recent release of information from the Health Services Executive (HSE) that shows 160 people in the county waiting on care staff to enable them stay in their own homes.

“What we are witnessing in the home care environment is an unfolding crisis as staff shortages cause considerable heartache for those who rely on this critical service.”

According to Sage Advocacy, which provides support to older people, vulnerable adults and healthcare patients, “older people in Ireland could have no other choice but to consider moving out of their own homes, because they cannot access the care and support services they need to continue living independently.”

Cllr. Moore adds; “From the numbers released to the Social Democrats from the HSE we can see just how acute this issue is in Meath with 160 people in the county waiting on care staff for new home support service with a further 109 people waiting on care staff for additional home support service.

“For some of these people it means that instead of spending Christmas at home in Meath, they might have to spend it instead in a nursing home against their will because of a shortage of available carers.

“One of the contributing factors to this staff shortage is the recent decision by the Department of Enterprise to exclude home carers from the critical skills exemption to the non-EEA employment permit system.

“The list of occupations for non-EEA work permits undergoes a twice-yearly review. The most recently concluded review in June did not recommend moving home care workers to the eligible occupations list and we can now see one of the repercussions of this,” he said.