Debate contribution: Domiciliary Care Packages: Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Debate contribution by Mr Patsy McGlone on 13 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Patsy McGlone

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

13 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Domiciliary Care Packages: Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4206536

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Chomhalta as an díospóireacht atrátha a chur ar an chlár oibre.

I do not know how many times I have stood in the Chamber and raised this very issue, often with the Minister. I almost said "the new Minister". Before I get into the detail of the subject, I will say that the real and vital heroes — I stress the words "vital heroes" — are those domiciliary care workers who, day and night, in good weather and bad, up hill and down dale in rural areas, are delivering that care to people who, essentially, need it. They are the real heroes, and, as I will come to later, they are the ones who require the recognition, because they do a sterling job. Not only do they provide a service in houses but, in some cases, they are the only people that that disabled and often elderly person sees. They bring a breath of fresh air into the house, and, as the Member said, they often do things that there is no requirement for them to do. They become family friends. Those staff are essentially vocational workers, because pay and conditions are so much better in many other sectors. It is their dedication and commitment that ensures that many people get the care that they need in their own home. As an MLA for Mid Ulster, I am very aware of the problems in providing those domiciliary care packages in the Northern Trust area. My office is contacted regularly either by patients who are still waiting for care packages or by their family members. Yesterday alone, I had three cases around the availability of domiciliary care packages. Those cases involve either people who are waiting for discharge from hospital or people who have been discharged without the required care package being available. Indeed, there can be delays in making an assessment of the required help, and, even when those assessments have been made, there can be lengthy delays in putting together the required packages. In one trust — thankfully, this is not the Northern Trust — I have seen people discharged from hospital without being assessed. That adds to a further problem. The problem is particularly acute in rural areas. It is often the case that there are simply not enough home care workers available and, in some areas, not enough to meet the actual demand. It is a fact, and I have seen this recently, that a person has to die for another person to get the required domiciliary care package that they have been waiting on for so long. If a care worker goes off sick or, as with a case that I know, on maternity leave, for example, there is no one to replace them on the rota. There is no one to replace them, and people are contacting us to see what we can do about that. There is no one to replace them. Yes, it is certainly a management issue, but, if you do not pay people, you cannot expect to get them. If you do not pay people a decent wage, you cannot expect to get them. Another aspect is that, where care workers are available, they can be limited in how far they can travel. The trust's terms and conditions are good, insofar as they can be, but in some of what is referred to as the independent sector — that is code for the private sector — the terms and conditions are not appropriate to pay people what they are due for travel. It is not just a problem of a shortage of home care workers. There are delays in occupational therapists' assessments of the need for home aids and home adaptations for people with mobility issues, and that is exacerbating the situation. In theory, that should be an all-round assessment of what is required, whether it is adaptations to the bathroom, the bedroom or other areas of the house that can ease the situation for the person concerned. That is not happening in a coordinated fashion. If those aids are not provided in the home for someone who is disabled, perhaps profoundly so, that makes it more difficult for the care workers when they come in to fulfil their duties. Therefore, it is not just about the delivery of domiciliary care packages. The trust has been forced to use step-down beds or interim-care placements until domiciliary care packages are available to free up acute hospital beds. It is important to note that putting people into step-down beds —

— or beds in nursing homes can be more expensive than domiciliary care packages. We could talk about many other issues in depth with the Minister, but I am sure that, as a constituency worker himself, he gets the gist of the problems. If we pay people a decent wage and provide people with a proper career structure, we will be able to deliver the necessary service in our communities.

831 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:36 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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