A DRAFT plan by the HSE to cut home help hours has been criticised by the lobby group Age Action and Opposition parties.
Under the draft plan, the maximum number of home-help hours will be reduced to 7.5 hours a week, and the service would be restricted to personal care rather than domestic chores, Age Action warned.
The organisation said this fell short of what was needed by older people who were dependent on the service if they were to remain living in their own homes.
“If the HSE was to limit home helps to 10 minutes to get people up in the morning, 15 minutes to shower them, and 10 minutes to help them with their breakfast, they would create a service which does not meet the needs of many older people who currently depend on home helps,” said Age Action spokesman Eamon Timmins.
Fine Gael spokesman for health Dr James Reilly said the plan “goes against an expounded policy agreed by all parties to treat people at home”.
“This draft plan is retrograde and flies in the face of what is clearly value for money,” he said.
Labour TD Seán Sherlock said every euro invested in the service allowed people to stay in their homes as long as possible in comparison to the cost of keeping them in care.
“While the HSE will argue that these are only proposals and nothing is cast in stone, the very fact that somebody saw fit to suggest imposing a time limit on the most basic of tasks speaks volumes about those in charge of our health system.”
The HSE said in a statement that the home help service would provide €11.98 million in home-help hours to 54,000 people this year.
It said it was impossible to provide further details of the draft plan pending senior management evaluation of the proposed scheme. Final guidelines would be available at the end of the year.