Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
OaPs ‘at risk over social care issue’
And the breakdown in the social care response service has also led to workers feeling “demoralised”.
A whistleblower contacted council officials and the Tele at the weekend amid claims that staffing numbers had been cut by 50%, meaning that people who require the help of the service — for anything from needing assistance to go to the toilet to alerting staff about a fall — had to wait hours for support.
The worker who alerted the council to the situation said that they feared it was only a matter of time before there was a “critical incident”.
The staff member told the Tele: “Despite receiving funding for six overnight vans to support the social care response service — the community alarm — on Saturday night in Dundee this essential service was running with three vans. Many clients complained of waiting almost three hours for toileting services but with so few resources to run this service staff were left to explain and apologise. Complaints are expected.
“Staff are both demoralised and feel totally alienated from any sort of management support — staff are leaving, are on long-term sick and many are considering redundancy offers.
“On some evenings 50% of all staffing is sessional staff who don’t have the depth of experience of full-time staff. It is only a matter of time before there is a critical incident.”
Stewart Fairweather, of the Unite union — which represents some of the staff — said he was aware of workers’ concerns. He added: “We want this resolved as quickly as possible because we are concerned that an elderly service user could suffer.”
A spokesman for Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership, a council and health service partnership which runs the service, said: “On Saturday night due to staff illness only three vehicles were available. As a result staff prioritised calls, which ensures those requiring emergency support were attended to timeously.
“We want to maintain quality of service and ensure staff have an opportunity to work in a supportive environment. Concerns over morale are being discussed with the team.”
ELDERLY people in Dundee could be at risk because of failings in the local community alarm system, it was claimed today.