Fears have been expressed that Clare health services could be hit by HSE measures to reign in a budgetary overspend.
With the health service running a deficit of 259 million euro, officials have announced 130 million of cost saving measures before the end of the year.
35 million euro will be saved on agency staff spending, while home help and personal assistant hours will both be cut, with each of these measures saving almost 11 million.
The HSE admits some patient disruption is inevitable, and Clare Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley feels it’s the Health Minister James Reilly who is at fault.
Meanwhile, the Trade Union SIPTU, which represents home help workers says it will strongly resist these HSE cutbacks and is not ruling out industrial action.
10.7 million hours of home help is currently provided to patients around the country – but this is now being reduced by 600,000 hours.
