Dublin People - Nurses laid off as home help scheme scrapped

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Nurses laid off as home help scheme scrapped

Thursday, 22 May 2008

Ten nurses at a prominent Northside hospital have found themselves out of a job after a HSE backed scheme came to an end last Friday (May 16).
In a controversial move, the HSE has decided to scrap the ‘Hospital in the Home’ scheme it brought into effect in 2007, leaving up to 70 nurses at six different hospitals in Dublin redundant.
As reported in Northside People recently, both nurses and patients availing of the scheme expressed their anger at the news it was being scrapped.
The scheme allowed for patients to be administered vital medication by highly trained nurses in their own homes, freeing up much needed hospital beds.
The HSE fully supported and funded the private health group Tara Healthcare to provide the service to patients at six hospitals in Dublin.
However, the HSE has now decided to pull its funding for the scheme, with a view to integrating it back into its own community services.
This decision has left 10 nurses at Beaumont Hospital searching for new employment.
Speaking to Northside People, Carol Hollingsworth, clinical nurse manager for Beaumont’s Hospital in the Home scheme, said it had been a nightmare for the nurses who had been laid off.
She said none of the 10 nurses who worked on the scheme at Beaumont had found new jobs within the health system.
Ms Hollingsworth has slammed the HSE’s decision as rash, and said it was just making cutbacks without any real thought for how successful the scheme was proving to be.
“The biggest shame is that all the nurses on the scheme are really skilled and specifically trained for community service,” Ms Hollingsworth said.
“But we have all now been left without a job and it is very disheartening.
“And with embargoes on the recruitment of staff in the health system, we are not too optimistic of finding new employment straight away either,” she said.
Ms Hollingsworth added that she feared many of the highly trained nurses on the scheme would now be lost to the Irish health service.
“All these nurses have been trained here in Ireland but it wouldn’t surprise me now if many of them feel the need to move abroad because of this latest setback,” she said.
“And because we have all been trained to work within the community, there may not be the will among some of the nurses to go back working within the hospitals,” Ms Hollingsworth stated.
A spokesman for the HSE said that it still planned to retain aspects of the service.
“Following an evaluation under an independent chairperson, the recommendation is to retain the Hospital in the Home concept but to mainstream the service into our own community services,” the spokesman said.
“Care will continue to be provided appropriately, whether in hospital or in the community.
“The intention is to repatriate the service to become part of our post acute care and community services as recommended by the evaluation group.”

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