The fate of hundreds of home and emergency carers across Aberdeenshire will be decided within months.
Health bosses are undertaking a major overhaul of services across the region as they aim to save £20 million in the next financial year.
The “recovery plan” affects various areas of the healthcare system – including home care and the Aberdeenshire Responders for Care at Home (Arch) service.
Community hospitals and in-house care homes will also come under review.
The drastic savings plan has been put together by the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AHSCP), the joint board of the local authority and NHS Grampian.
Last week, Aberdeenshire Council leader Gillian Owen said the partnership is their “biggest financial drain” amid a growing number of elderly people needing care.
A shock dossier had earlier outlined the body is facing a £26m overspend this year.
And health chiefs hope to recoup a good chunk of that by reducing or reshaping the services they provide, while also increasing the charges for using some of them.
These are just proposals at this stage, and the details of what exactly the looming cuts would mean for employees and those using the services have been vague.
However, a leaked email has now shone some light on what the partnership’s next steps are.
Health chiefs outline next steps after criticism over ‘not involving staff’
The email was sent to home carers and Arch responders, who have previously raised concerns about the lack of consultation prior to the proposals being put forward.
The services are facing a 70% chop, which is “likely to result in some redundancies”.
A whistleblower told The P&J they were “left in shock” when health bosses broke the news that some of them might soon be out of job.
Aberdeenshire Unison branch secretary Inez Kirk also slammed AHSCP for not involving the workforce during the latest Integration Joint Board meeting.
And now, partnership manager for south Aberdeenshire, Janine Howie, has outlined all of the steps they are taking as part of the first phase of the project.
Timeline of what comes next in Aberdeenshire healthcare overhaul
The chief officer leading the redesign of the home care system reveals in her email that there will be a major consultation process before any final decisions are made.
Essentially, this will last from March 7 until May 2 and include both staff and the community.
Residents will be able to have their say on the proposed cuts from March 10 until April 7. The details of how exactly they can do that, however, are still to be released.
Meanwhile, health chiefs plan to hold a “service redesign workshop” with staff impacted by the proposed cuts on March 7, where the workforce can also share their views.
This will be followed by talks with home care and Arch teams on March 20.
All of the collated information will then be used to put together more detailed draft proposals, which need to be submitted to IJB for consideration by May 5.
Everything from there depends on whether the IJB committee decides to move forward with the plans or not at their meeting on May 28.
However, the final date for all of the changes to come into force is October 1.
Addressing home carers and Arch responders, Ms Howie adds: “As soon as we have an IJB decision, we will be communicating about what happens next.
“HR and trade union representatives are involved and available to you should you require this. All of your line managers will work to support you as best we can.”
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Read more:
- Under-fire health boss says at-risk Aberdeenshire carers ‘spend half their time not working’
- IN FULL: All the Aberdeenshire health charges that could rocket as ‘brutal’ savings plan poised to ’empty vulnerable people’s pockets’
- Exclusive: Hundreds of Aberdeenshire carers ‘in shock’ as whistleblower reveals redundancy heartbreak
- Ticking timebomb: Trade union warns proposed Aberdeenshire health cuts will create care home crisis
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