BUDGETARY CUTS sought by the Health Service Executive West could have a “devastating” impact on services for people with disabilities, according to one of the major providers in the western region.
Respite care services could be cancelled, community homes closed and staffing levels affected if a new cut estimated at €2 million is imposed by HSE West on the Brothers of Charity in Galway.
This is in addition to a saving of €2.5 million being sought for this year, and a budgetary reduction of €1.8 million imposed last year on the charity.
No specific figure has been confirmed by HSE West but Brothers of Charity management believes it to be about €2 million.
Management was told of the development last Friday during a meeting to discuss existing cost-containment measures, according to Brothers of Charity acting chief executive Anne Geraghty.
The Brothers of Charity board of directors is due to discuss the issue tonight, and a meeting with parents is due to be held in Galway tomorrow night.
Frank Conaty, a Galway parent and chairman of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, said a “disastrous vista” which parents were facing at the end of the year could be “fast-forwarded”.
“Respite care could be gone within two weeks, and community homes closed very shortly, which is shocking.”
He said the respite of one night per week and one weekend a month provided a “safety valve” for parents who provided 24-hour care to intellectually and physically challenged loved ones.
The cuts are coming just several months after an Irish Human Rights Commission report on the John Paul Centre run by the Brothers of Charity in Galway made a number of criticisms and recommendations, including the need to take a person-centred approach to care.
Ms Geraghty said the charity did not want to revert to the old model of institutional care which had been identified as flawed by the Irish Human Rights Commission, but the new cuts would “push us back 10 years”.
“We are still hoping this will not happen, but very serious decisions will have to be made if it is.”
All six Brothers of Charity regions in the State have experienced cutbacks in HSE allocations. In Galway, the charity’s board has fallen back on reserves to keep key services such as respite care in place to the end of the year. The organisation’s existing annual budget is €45 million.
It is expected that other charities may also be affected by the HSE West measures.
In a statement issued yesterday, HSE West said it was facing severe financial pressure in 2010, and “efficiencies need to be achieved across the entire range of services provided” to enable it to stay within budget.
“Grants to voluntary agencies are a substantial part of the overall expenditure in the west, and the agencies we work with have been advised they will need to work with us to overcome the budgetary pressures in the current year,” it said.
“Substantial increased funding was channelled into voluntary agencies during the good years of the past decade. Allocations have been reduced this year and the cost-containment measures will have to be shared among all of our services.
“However, the HSE is clear that the initial focus on cost-containment for voluntary agencies has to be streamlining management overheads and reducing unnecessary duplication of management and corporate functions such as human resources, finance, procurement, etc.
“The voluntary agencies have been invited to work closely with us in our shared objective of protecting frontline services for clients and their families.”
It said further meetings were scheduled “over the coming week” to discuss final details of the “cost- containment plans”.