BRAY HOME CARE WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO COUNTY

POSITIVE OUTCOME FOLLOWING HSE NEGOTIATIONS

BRAY HOME CARE is ‘ happy to continue providing the excellent service they do in County Wicklow’, according to a statement released on Monday by the Department of Health.

This followed fears that the company may be forced to withdraw its services to 267 clients in the district due to funding issues.

After negotiations during last week and over the weekend between Bray Home Care and the HSE, it was confirmed that their services would continue.

The company employs 54 people and staff had been put on ‘protective notice’ last week. Meaning that unless circumstances changed, they would be out of work.

‘Minister Harris is very much aware of the excellent work undertaken by Bray Home Care,’ said the statement, in which the news was confirmed.

‘Home Support Services are highly valued by clients, their carers and by the HSE as it provides supports which assist older people to live independently in their own homes for longer and enables large numbers of people to return home following acute hospital admission who otherwise would remain in hospital or would be admitted to long stay residential care,’ the statement also said.

The not-for-profit organisation has been providing care for older members of the community in their own homes for the last 40 years.

Deputy Stephen Donnelly had written to Minister for Health Simon Harris prior to agreement being made, asking for a one-year reprieve to Bray Home Care.

Labour chairperson Jack O’Connor said that the situation ‘ brings into sharp focus the wider issues of what competitive tendering and the associated race to the bottom in service provision is doing to our care services.

‘It is leaving workers in precarious situations where they are unable to plan for their futures and leaving vulnerable clients in fear for their services and feeling a deep sense of insecurity.’