SIPTU calls for more Home Support workers in the North East

SIPTU has called on the management of the HSE to employ additional workers in the Home Support service to deal with a developing crisis in the North East region due to staff shortages.

SIPTU Organiser, John McCamley, said: “HSE management has increased the number of Home Support packages as part of its strategy to deal with overcrowding in hospital emergency departments in the North East region.

 “This increase follows years of the service being starved of staff and resources. However, Home Support workers are struggling to deal with the increased workload resulting from the number of additional packages being provided to clients.

“This has resulted in local management being forced to turn to an array of private agencies making the provision of the new Home Support packages more cumbersome.”  

He added: “The HSE needs to deal with this developing problem. Home Support workers play a vital role in assisting people within the community and as a result freeing up beds in main acute hospitals. If management does not deal with the staffing shortage in the service it will become increasingly difficult to provide additional Home Support packages which in turn will have an adverse effect on acute hospitals in the region.”