The Health Services Executive of Ireland, or HSE, is a government funded organization created in 2004 under the Health Act. It’s aim is to support the people of Ireland with the social and health related resources necessary to achieve their potential. Additionally, it gives Irish citizens the access to safe, compassionate, and quality health care at home or at a medical center.
Within the recent years, there has been an influx in the population of adults that are in need of in-home services. The HSE has been outsourcing most of their at-home care business to businesses that are outside of the government, despite the high costs that come with this type of service. According to recent reports, the prices for this type of service can be twice the cost of Health Services Executives.
Mary Butler, who is a spokesperson for older people, has looked into data and found that the HSE has outsourced basically all of their home care in the nation’s capital. Additionally, smaller cities such as Dún Laoghaire, Dublin south-east, Wicklow, Co Kerry, Co Cork, Co Donegal, Co Sligo, Co Leitrim, and Co Cavan are also experiencing this lack of direct government care.
Although this seems to be somewhat shady, the Irish government noted that it simply could not recruit enough in-home caretakers for the positions that they must be filled to be able to provide care to its citizens. The homecare staff agreement has been improved substantially within the past years in the HSE, but it has yet to entice enough workers that could be paid much more for the same task outside of the organization.
One huge problem that is beginning to arise from this large amount of outsourcing is the fact that the government can only allocate so many of their funds to homecare services for those who are eligible for the services. With limited resources, there is a lot of competition during the application and extension of car process.
This is not ideal, given that in home care implies that the person applying is currently battling many other health-related issues. There is no true way for the government to figure out which of the applicants is more worthy of receiving care, which can create issues in allocating resources now and in the future. Additionally, without the availability of resources the government faces the possibility of lawsuits or other legal repercussions in regards to the death of a person who may not have received all of the benefits that they were entitled to.
This situation is a tricky one to make decisions for because consumer health is on the line, but without vital resources it could be hard for the government to do its job well.
