The home care sector in Fermanagh is under stress as a Western Trust media briefing revealed a major shortfall in domiciliary care workers in parts of Fermanagh.

Speaking to the media as part of a briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Bob Brown, Executive Director of Nursing Director of Primary Care and Older People Services said: “In terms of ‘unmet need’ there are 127 clients out of 3,502 clients who are awaiting their care, that adds up to over 1,000 areas of care that we are continuing to actively pursue.

“In parts of Fermanagh and West Tyrone we do not have enough carers to provide care in people’s homes, that is a challenge for the Trust working directly with the independent sector providers of homecare.”

Domiciliary carers provide care for a large number of people in the Western Trust.

Dr. Brown broke down the figures. He said: “We currently provide for 3,500 service users in their own home every day, equating to 74,000 contacts a week and 38,000 hours of care a week.

“That is less than it was a year ago, during the year of Covid there have been fewer referrals. The Health and Care systems has adjusted to reflect Covid, families have taken on more care and there has been an increase in direct payments to support care in the home.”

Dr. Brown added: “Overall the vast majority of care has been reset to where it was previously given pre Covid.

Speaking on absences in the domiciliary care sector, Dr. Brown said: “Absence levels among homecare staff is not a problem anymore, it peaked in October and it is now very small.”

Dr. Brown added: “There has been a 75 per cent uptake of vaccine among home care staff which is really encouraging.”