‘Are they just trying to kill us all off?’

An elderly woman in ill health, who has relied on a home help worker to bathe and dress her for the past 14 years, was among 1,500 people who attended a protest rally in Cork over nationwide cuts to the service.

The health of Pat Deeney, aged 75, from Grange in Cork, has been severely compromised since 1998 arising out of a brain tumour and a stroke. She has been left without the assistance of her home help at weekends, which means her husband Terry, 77, has little choice but to take over her personal care and grooming two days a week.

Ms Deeney says she is hugely upset and worried by the cut in home help hours.

“What are they trying to do with us? Are they just trying to kill us all off? It is dreadful. You have a friendship as well with the person coming through the door. It is vital.”

Her husband Terry said any savings made by the HSE from the cuts are being paid out in social welfare as home helps turn to community welfare officers for assistance. He added that it was “very stressful” to have to take care of his wife’s personal care due to brutal Governmental cuts.

“It is not nice at the very least. When you get older any change is a big deal,” he said.

Home help workers travelled from all over Ireland for Saturday’s rally, which started at Cork’s Connolly Hall and continued up the Grand Parade.

Also among the protesters was Pauline O’Driscoll from Ballinlough in Cork, who said home help workers act as counsellors in addition to providing practical support to elderly people.

“I have one woman in her 90s and she buried her daughter. So that was very upsetting for her,” she said.

“The people I lost didn’t even get letters from the HSE explaining what had happened.”

Linda Fitton from Douglas has worked as a home help for 10 years and has seen her weekly hours cut from 25 to just four. Among her clients is an elderly man who had a liver transplant and relies on her to carry out housework.

“It was just housework one hour a week and that has been cut. He lives alone. His health is really bad.

“I have another woman in her 80s who was getting two hours a week and her hours have been cut. She is very feeble.”

Siptu organiser Ted Kenny said 500,000 home help hours have already been removed in 2012 and now the HSE is seeking to slash a further 600,000 hours before the end of this year.

“It would seem that the most vulnerable in our society are being made to suffer for the benefit of private for-profit health companies who stand to benefit once the HSE has overseen the destruction of the currently highly efficient home help service,” he said.

Siptu plans to escalate its protests ahead of Labour Relations Commission talks with the HSE this month. Rallies will also be held before next month’s budget.

Siptu says these actions will be aimed at maximising pressure on the Minister for Health and the HSE “to end their policy of drastically reducing home health services”.