FAMILIES USING a number of private homecare providers have been complaining to the HSE for more than three years about the quality of care provided to their loved ones, it has emerged.
The complaints have revolved around staff such as home helps and homecare assistants not turning up, turning up late, being verbally abusive to older people, giving the wrong medication, having very poor English and very poor skills to do their job.
Details of the complaints have been released under the Freedom of Information Act to Dermot Kirwan of the Friends of the Elderly organisation.
He said yesterday the letters of complaint released to him covered the greater Dublin area and were mainly about homecare services provided by private companies.
Thousands of families are given homecare packages every year under which they can buy home help and other services from private providers. There are now about 150 such providers in the State.
One complainant alleged an elderly lady was left soiled in her bed all weekend because the homecare assistant never turned up. When the family phoned the homecare company’s office there was nobody there.
Another said her doubly-incontinent mother “had three different carers in six days”, which meant there could be no continuity of care.
A third said a carer visited 15 times but didn’t give their relative a shower.
Mr Kirwan said the whole area needed to be regulated. “The threat of random checks would change things considerably,” he said.
“These people who are caring for the housebound or bed-bound elderly behind closed doors in the most personal and intimate way are unregistered, unregulated and unsupervised,” he said.
“It is a national disgrace, if I want to run a nursing home I need a licence, if I want to be a taxi driver I need a licence, yet I can start a homecare company without notifying anyone apart from the companies office . . . if something is not done soon, we will have another Leas Cross on our hands.”
The Minister of State with responsibility for Older People, Áine Brady, said last night the HSE had requested all its local managers to review their own services and their private providers to ascertain they were satisfied with the care being provided.
Her comments came following an RTÉ Prime Time Investigatesprogramme which sent undercover homecare staff to work for a number of private homecare companies. One hired carers with no training or Garda clearance.
The programme also contained footage of an elderly woman being force-fed by a care worker employed by Clontarf Home Care Services. The company said last night three members of staff had been suspended on full pay pending an investigation.
It also said it had been providing homecare services on a not-for-profit basis for 38 years and only received one written complaint in the last year.
Ms Brady said the key element that must exist between providers of care, be they public or private, and the recipient of that care, has to be trust.
It was clear in the cases shown on Prime Timethat the behaviour and practices highlighted breached that trust in an unacceptable way, she said.
The HSE spends about €340 million a year on homecare services for about 65,000 people. More than 90 per cent of this care is provided directly by HSE staff.
It said last night it was taking seriously the concerns raised andconfirmed that eight local health offices in the greater Dublin region received a total of 38 complaints about homecare services over the past three and a half years.
The HSE has requested tenders from private homecare providers who will provide services in future according to approved standards. These will be identified by February and will have to meet certain minimum standards.
It said if a member of the public wants to report a concern with a homecare service they should contact the HSE directly on its Information line, 1850-242850, which will be open from 8am today.