A trade union has raised its concern that a 24-hour alarm service provided in-house to elderly and vulnerable residents across the borough looks set to be dropped by Ealing Council with 15 people losing their jobs.
Ealing Careline, which provides an emergency call button alert service to help residents in need, is in the process of an internal review by the council which could see the service being outsourced to another provider outside of the borough instead of being provided in-house.
The careline service is described by the council as: “Ealing Careline is an alarm network for older people and younger people with a chronic sickness or disability (including learning disabilities), and their carers living in the borough. The emergency alarm system helps people to live as independently as possible.
“It is an alarm system that operates from your own home using a special telephone unit. You can get help in an emergency by pressing a button – either on a pendent worn around your neck or on a telephone unit. This will set off an alarm in our control centre, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
There are concerns if the service is outsourced it could move to a provider not located near to its residents. Neighbouring borough Brent offers a careline service to its residents which is provided through its neighbour Harrow Council.
Trade Union Unison has written to the council over its concerns that the service is being proposed to be shut with a loss of 15 staff. The union also says Ealing Careline handled 124,000 alarm calls and incidents over the past year.
Mary Lancaster, secretary of Ealing Unison, the local government trade union wrote in a letter to Ealing Councillors Josh Blacker for Healthy live and Bassam Mahfouz for Safe and genuinely affordable homes: “the decision to cease offering an in-house careline service is a disaster waiting to happen.”
She asked if the councillors were aware of how many calls and incidents the service deals with and added: “closure would fall heavily on to the families of these vulnerable residents as any alternative will never offer a local efficient and effective response service. It would be even harder for those without immediate family or friends living close.”
Eve Turner, from local campaign group Ealing Save Our NHS commented on plans to close Ealing Careline: “This decision will put another unacceptable burden on the NHS.”
Ms Turner added: “The Careline Service means that people can more safely be discharged from hospital. There is a huge waiting list and, without this vital service, hospital beds may be occupied unnecessarily. Not only that, without Careline being able to turn up in an emergency, it will fall to the already overloaded London Ambulance Service.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, chair of Ealing Green Party Neil Reynolds said: “This is another example of austerity biting hard. The one thing that cutting services like careline won’t do is save money in the long run. Vulnerable people will be pushed into residential care or hospitals as a result.”
Mr Reynolds added: “The Green Party supports funding local authorities to help vulnerable residents to get the support they need at home. It is often best for residents and the tax payer.”
A council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “Careline Services are currently under review. As the review is still underway, we cannot comment at this time.”
