Kelly wants Drumm to donate bonus to home help budget
Roscommon Herald, 20th October, 2009.
A Ballaghaderreen based councillor has this week urged Health Service Executive CEO, Professor Brendan Drumm to donate the €70,000 bonus payment to a much needed home help budget “where elderly people are struggling big time and striving to stay out of nursing homes”.
“When you think it couldn’t get any worse and that very soon the Government would have all its I’s dotted and t’s crossed we hear of yet another bonus we simply cannot afford or indeed comprehend,” said Cllr John Kelly. “With the best will in the world I presume that Professor Drumm thought that he could sort out the health service. What he did was to take away local accountability and replace it with yet another monster that’s out of control. In this case it’s the HSE. It now appears to me that every Minister wants to set up a sub organisation within his/her own department and blame them for everything that goes wrong. I am not even going to give one example because that would lead to two, three, four, etc,” said the Independent councillor.
“It is now so outrageous that the elderly person that wants home help has to be almost on his/her death bed to get help, but yet there is no problem finding €70,000 as a bonus for Professor Drumm for the fine way that he has rehabilitated the health service. Why does every hard working person across the public sector not get a bonus for performance? Why in my own day job, since it had been proven that I am doing the work of two people, do I not get a bonus,” asked Cllr Kelly. “The answer is quite simple, you get your bonus for sticking within budgets and that entails cutbacks and people other than the beneficiary of the bonus, suffer.
“I can speak for almost everyone in County Roscommon when I say that if I was on a salary of €425,000 per annum I wouldn’t really be concerned about a bonus. “I can sill recall my days going to school in the CBS in Roscommon as my father drove past the courthouse he pointed to a room in it and told me that the administrative side of Roscommon Hospital was run from that room. Back then we had a hospital to be envied. Now we are giving bonuses to downgrade them or as the HSE spin it ‘he delivered on the HSE service plan’ i.e. bonus for cut back.
“At this stage I would like to think that Professor Drumm took on this job for all the right reasons but pencilling into his agreement that he should get a bonus makes a mockery of that,” concluded Cllr Kelly.
New scheme does not address hardship cases – Kelly
Roscommon Herald 13th October, 2009.
BY MARESA FAGAN
The Fair Deal scheme offering financial support for nursing home care does not make provisions for hardship cases, according to Cllr John Kelly, who has reiterated his concerns over aspects of the new scheme.
Under the new scheme, Cllr Kelly said provisions would not be made for hardship cases and the family home would now be included as part of the means testing process and, where necessary, used to pay off nursing home bills in the future. “The family home or principal private residence is now being included as an asset as part of a new financial assessment process for all applicants but provisions have not been made for hardship cases, where for example, members of the family still reside in the family home and are unemployed or on disability,” Cllr Kelly said.
“Take for example a single man, who is on social welfare and is living in the family home while his mother is in a nursing home. Under the new scheme, the State will be looking for 15% of the value of the home to fund nursing home care, but how is someone like that going to be able to pay that? It will be like a noose around their neck. I don’t think that’s fair and the scheme should make provisions for people in such circumstances,” he added. “Under the scheme the payment of that charge or loan can be deferred but it means that there will always be a hold on that house. I believe that no claim should be made on a principal private residence where a member of the family, who is on social welfare or disability, continues to reside,” Cllr Kelly said.
He added that public nursing homes were also being brought in under the new “Fair Deal” and that the same repercussions would apply to any new applicants seeking financial support under the new scheme. “The Government should have left the public nursing home facilities as they were, that is, for people who have not the wherewithal to pay for nursing home care and to cater for hardship cases where they arise,” Cllr Kelly said.
Under the scheme applicants will not be guaranteed a nursing home place, Cllr Kelly said, explaining that people would only be admitted on “ absolute medical need” and based on assessment. He added that there was also no guarantee that applicants would get a place in a nursing home of their choice. “When the funding runs out people will be placed on a waiting list until the money becomes available. This could result in people being forced to rely on a slipshod home help service, which is not being adequately funded at present, or people taking up hospital beds. There is nothing fair about that and I don’t believe that it’s a fair deal,” Cllr Kelly said.
Kelly slams ‘unfair’ deal on nursing home subvention
Roscommon Herald
22nd September 2009.
The ‘unfair deal’ being introduced by the Government to replace the existing nursing home subvention scheme has been clammed by Cllr John Kelly. The new scheme, a “Fair Deal”, has described as anything but fair by Cllr Kelly. Describing the new regulations, expected to come into effect on September 28th, as a “bad deal”, Cllr Kelly said that the means test would be “more stringent” than in the existing nursing home subvention scheme.
Under the new regulations, Cllr Kelly said, provisions would not be made for hardship cases and the family home would now be included as part of the means testing process and, where necessary, used to pay off nursing home bills in the future. “The house is now thrown into the pot when people are being means tested and it will be used in the future as an asset to pay off bills where necessary,” Cllr Kelly said.
“Take for example a single man who is unemployed and is living in the family home while his mother is in a nursing home. Under these new regulations, this man could face losing the family home and the roof over his head in order to pay nursing home bills,” Cllr Kelly said. He added that public nursing homes were also being brought in under the new “Fair Deal” and that the same repercussions would apply to any new applicants for nursing home subvention.
Under the regulations applicants would not be guaranteed a nursing home place, Cllr Kelly said, explaining that people would only be admitted on “absolute medical need” and based on assessment. He added that there was also no guarantee that applicants would get a place in a nursing home of their choice. “The regulations, which are only in draft format and are being rushed through, will also mean that if funding runs out for nursing home subvention that people will be placed on a waiting list until the money becomes available,” Cllr Kelly said. “This is a bad deal for elderly people and their families who need nursing home subvention. There are no provisions for hardship cases and under these new regulations many people could face losing the family home in the future,” Cllr Kelly said.
The following is a letter wrote to the minister 4 years ago, and still no action taken:
Castlemore,
Ballaghaderreen,
Co.Roscommon.
30 Nov. 05
Re. Community Police Force
Dear Minister,
I am writing to you out of genuine concerns for our population but especially our elderly folk living in isolated rural Ireland. As you are aware we have a changing population and neighbours no longer know their neighbours and consequently a lot of people are living in fear. They are also living in fear because of recent developments regarding the break in to Padraig Nallys house in Co Mayo and the belief that they have no protection whatsoever. Further erosion of services in rural Ireland like closing post offices and garda stations will further frighten our elderly people.
On TV the other night we heard from a man that claimed his elderly neighbours slept in the attic at night because of fear of a break in. In Ballaghaderreen recently we have had several attempted break ins to elderly peoples homes. Last Tuesday my friends home was broken into at 4.15 pm. Yesterday, November 29 our local gardai apprehended five people, all from Dublin who came down to rural Ireland to carry out a spate of overnight burglaries in Athenry and Williamstown before our Castlerea gardai were alerted by one of their own members at 6.10 am to their presence in our area. They appeared to have clear intentions in relation to other post offices in Fairymount and Loughglynn areas also. With the resources the Gardai have, I want to congratulate them for the capture of these thieves and I hope it sends a message back to any other would be burglars in our area that they might get in to our county but they wont get back out.
I believe that most of these break ins are being executed by drug abusers who are desperate for money to feed their habit. Alot of them have moved down the country now because our Celtic Tiger has provided an over supply of housing in rural Ireland. Whereas I don’t begrudge anyone the right to be housed I do have a problem with our ability to deal with an influx of drug and social problems from other parts of the country.
We have to address these issues in rural Ireland and have a dedicated community police force in every area calling in on the elderly and walking the streets of our rural towns. Their presence has to be seen and felt.
Cllr.John Kelly
Non Party.
Ballaghaderreen Electoral Area.
086 8094698
Sun 22/04/2007
Castlerea pensioners hit hard by out patient travel costs
Cllr John Kelly has called on the HSE to have a look at its patient transport policy. In the canvass around Castlerea, he was met on the doorstep by a very distraught pensioner who told him it cost her 90 euro to get a taxi from Roscommon to Galway to go to an outpatient appointment. "This 90 euro taxi fare which was actually a bargain compared to other prices I have heard for the same journey, represents a huge percentage of the pensioners disposable income," said Kelly. It costs in the region of 120 to 150 euro for Ballaghaderreen pensioners to fulfil their Galway appointments when waiting time is added.
In a recent interview with Mid West Radio Deputy Eamon O Cuiv claimed that there ware billions of euros pumped into the Health Service every year and that there was plenty of money available to transport all patients to their appointments and that it was unacceptable that this is not the case. However, other people in the HSE can decide to spend that money on something else and deprive the elderly and vulnerable of a service that was available to them for years and the Minister for Health is doing nothing about it.
"There is a solution that is win win for both cash stricken clients and HSE," claimed Kelly "If appointments were organised with geography in mind, i.e. that all appointment for the day for clients from Castlerea or indeed Ballaghaderreen were timetabled together and so on, it would be more cost effective to run a bus from Castlerea serving the hinterlands on a daily basis than paying for all the taxi fares for the outpatients.
Less well off being hurt by Nursing Home regulations
The Nursing Home Subvention Regulations need a major rethink according to Cllr John Kelly, General Election Candidate.
Kelly claims that there are many inadequacies which are hurting the less well off. "For example, Enhanced Subvention as we know it, will rarely if ever apply to an applicant in Co Roscommon, as the cap is set at €100 less than the market price that care can actually be provided for The average cost of care in this region was estimated to be 561 euro per week - the Enhanced Subvention maximum rate is set at €461."
The idea behind Enhanced Subvention was to provide a resident who had no more than their pension to survive on with a top up to help meet the difference between the normal subvention plus their pension, and the cost of care in the Nursing Home. Cllr Kelly pointed out that the situation is likely to get worse, not better: "To meet the strict operating quality standards required, Nursing Homes have had no choice now but to increase charges. The inadequacies of the Enhanced Subvention has meant that some people will have to contribute a lot more to stay in care, and even use up the 20 % of OAP rate that they should have at their disposal for their own personal needs"
"Helping the marginalised, the les well off and the elderly should be to the forefront of our Health Policy and I intend working hard to make this a reality," added Kelly
Rural Transport in Ballaghaderreen Area
RURAL TRANSPORT RURAL TRANSPORT RURAL TRANPORT
When are we going to realise its importance for our elderly ? When are we going to stop neglecting , isolating , costing them and leaving them frightened ? It is now past time that this initiative that has been hidden, delayed, procrastinated and generally speaking ignored, is dealt with conclusively well before the next election.It is past time to feed us with more hogwash and excuses for its non delivery to date.Why can the Minister not take it upon himself to make a directive to have it dealt with before a particular date rather than make excuses for other agencies that are not doing their part.
In Ballaghaderreen unlike most other parts of the County we have more miles of road than most other parts.These roads are not National Primary Roads but a maze of small by roads.Some people would say that you would not know the difference anyway and it is hard to contradict them .However, because of this statistic about our network of roads it also means that we have more elderly living in rural and isolated areas than anywhere else in the county.Of course it may cost too much to look after our elderly population in the way they need to be looked after but I am fairly sure FF don’t mind if they could only get past the 2007 finishing line and they can shelve it for another four years.
These elderly people need to get to their local post office every Friday for their pensions even though FF would prefer if they went to the ATM machine at our local banks.They also would like to get to mass on Saturday evening .However, they have no transport and they haven’t for a hundred years in rural West Roscommon but let them wait.We must wait until the Govt completes their 2021 Transport Plan in 2031.Then most of our dear elderly will either have passed on to another life where their new Government actually will look after them until eternity, thank God.Despite all of this our present Govt and some of their Ministers are still playing God with too many issues of enormous importance to our elderly.
Now I will stand corrected on this ,but I believe that they are not been given their full entitlements in relation to many issues.Lets start with Home Helps.The HSE get so little to meet demand here that most elderly people are forced to pay for the service despite wastage of my money and other tax payers money over a long period on other non-sensical projects that people see no use for ,PPARS 135 million and E Voting which only cost me and others ,50 million.If only someone could be held financial accountable for the Government wasting my tax contribution to the running of the country, I would be satisfied.However, and unfortunately it appears that when you make the ultimate error you get either moved to and equally mind boggling Govt department with a half dozen advisors or more likely PROMOTED..
On the real and serious issue of our elderly and on their right to free travel,why are the Department of Social Welfare still sending the people of Ballaghaderreen the free travel pass ??? Have they not worked it out as yet , there is no actual body that recognises a travel pass card in this area as yet and this is primarily due to the fact that they are useless to our people.Compare this to our elderly counterparts in Dublin, they are making the Govt pay for their free travel cards and we are the subsidisers down here.I would suggest that the Govt allow a voucher to be used for taxis by our isolated pensioners to allow for this useless travel pass.No,that would cost too much.So you can see that they really don’t care about you.They will attend your old folks party,they will shake hands with you and pretend they know you or indeed have someone there to prompt them and of course they will attend your funeral.What have you gained from that???
Since 1996 Roscommon has the highest elderly dependence rate in the Midlands.Laois 19.4%,Westmeath 18.5%,Longford 22.5% and Roscommon 27.5%. With our elderly now living longer and the fact that this is 1996 figures ,I am sure that it is now much greater.In Ballaghaderreen,Lisacul and Loughglynn areas alone there were 785 elderly people with medical cards.Most of them are living in isolated rural areas.Why are this Govt. still insisting on feasibility studies,surveys and all other delaying mechanisms while our elderly remain isolated and neglected in rural Ireland ?? .
Cllr.John Kelly Independent
Ballaghaderreen Electoral Area.
Re. (1) Top up for Essential Repairs Grant and Disabled Persons Grants.
(2) Transportation of patients to out patient clinics
(3) Rent deposits.
Dear Minister Brennan,
I recently wrote to you regarding the phone service within some social welfare offices and last week about the free fuel scheme as I am both a Community Welfare Officer and a Co.Councillor.Now I would like your opinion on (1) and (2) above and I want to make a recommendation on (3) to your good self.
On (1) can you agree that situations will arise that the CWS are the only service in a position to assist people ,because of financial hardship ,with topping up of the two grants?I am asking this because we recently got a directive from your Dept. stating that SWA is not to be used for that purpose.I believe that SWA is all about using it to alleviate poverty.
(2) We also got a directive from your Dept. recently giving us until December 2005 to cease our involvement in assisting people who have not got the finances to pay for taxis to out patient clinics.Considering that we in rural Ireland and in particular in my area have neither a rural transport system nor an adequate public transport system I think that it would be disgraceful if we neglected our customers/clients/patients like that..Furthermore,the ambulance service in Co.Roscommon consider themselves a 999 service only and are trying to cease their own involvement in this type of issue.However,they are at present providing a selective type of out patient travel system but for the ordinary person with an ordinary run of the mill out patient appointment ,there in no service unless we as CWOS assist.Can you give me your views on that please as a matter of urgency.
(3) I wonder Minister if you ever considered giving rent deposits under the SWA scheme on the basis of a loan that should be repaid by a small weekly deduction from the clients SW payment until it is repaid.I believe that the DSS do this and I believe that people would have more regard for their deposit if it actually cost them to have it in place, albeit in the long run?
I await your response Minister and I do believe that you do sympathise with people who are experiencing poverty and believe me they are the only ones I am representing here also.
Yours Sincerely
Cllr.John Kelly
