A NORTH Belfast MLA has urged the Health Minister to address the amount of people awaiting a domiciliary care package in the Belfast Trust.
Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín had submitted an Assembly question to Health Minister Robin Swann, asking how many people are awaiting a domiciliary care package in Belfast. In response, the Health Minister revealed that as of January 31, 323 people were awaiting a full package and 414 people a partial care package – a total of 737 people in the Belfast Trust.
Ms Ní Chuilín said: "People who are vulnerable and needing help are already waiting too long. There are huge challenges in discharging people from hospital without the care package in place. The recent £70m announcement from the Minister must tackle this."
Health Minister Robin Swann stated: "Domiciliary care services continue to experience significant pressures across the region, and there are a range of factors currently impacting upon delivery of this service; this includes significant retention issues in regard to domiciliary care staff.
"I recently announced a £70m funding package across a range of service provision, including domiciliary care.
"The purpose of this was to ensure independent sector providers had the necessary funding to meet the challenges of increases to national living wage from the beginning of April.
"I have also established structures to consider how we move the sector to a Real Living Wage employer base and significant work is ongoing to build the case for the additional funds that will be required to deliver this.
"Where delivery of care packages has been negatively impacted due to challenges regarding capacity, Trusts have in place mitigation measures to try to ensure services continue to be provided.
"My Department remains committed to the provision of a high quality domiciliary care service, and will continue to work alongside Trusts and independent sector providers to maintain and support service provision."
