NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Trevor Ringland, has described the state of a meals service for older people in the Southern Health Trust “a worrying development and seemingly at odds with the aims of the minister.” Suppliers announced this week that its delivery service was no longer sustainable, after a peak of 4,300 weekly meals fell to 600.
“Edwin Poots says he wants to help older people to stay independent and receive care in their own homes”, Trevor explained. “NI Conservatives agree with that aim, however running down services is not the way to go about this. It seems that the Southern Trust is not acting on the minister’s advice, or that the minister is not in control of the direction of the various health trusts.”
“Last week NI Conservatives highlighted that too many home visits by care-workers were so-called ’15 minute visits’, where older people are not getting the care they need. It seems that, although the strategy is to encourage more home care, resources are not yet moving in the same direction. We need to see delivery on this issue, so that people in Northern Ireland are not short-changed by a minister who doesn’t know what is happening on the ground.”