Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are two issues, the first of which is that when the rostering was changed, there were talks between the HSE and the staff. The clients were not involved. That was a failure. The clients should have been involved regarding this issue.

The timing of when the calls are made is becoming a major issue. People were traditionally getting a call in either the morning or evening and they knew the time. Now, it could be any time in the day. It is not suiting the clients themselves. The clients or patients, these wonderful people who are living independently, were used to having the same person call. A bond was built up. They knew their needs and there was no, "Hello, who are you?" That breakdown is becoming a big issue in the public domain about how we need to sort this out. The community aspect is wrong. That is a huge issue for us.

There have been, and I have evidence of this, changes in rosters with the result that people are not getting the same service they were getting previously. That is a major issue on the ground. I personally believe we need to review this. The old system worked better. The system that is in place at the moment is not serving the community. I urge that we take a review of what happened since last April because it is not working on the ground.