Over recent days, local recipients of the cooked meals service run by the South Eastern HSC Trust received letters explaining that the proposal to deliver the meals as a frozen meals service has been abandoned.
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Councillor Colin McGrath has welcomed the Trust decision to continue with cooked chill meals for its ‘meals on wheels’ service.[/caption]
They was a considerable reaction initially to the proposal earlier this year from users and politicians that the chilled meals service was to deliver a number of frozen meals to each client, but this announcement will be seen as good news by the users of the service.
Newry Mourne and Down District Councillor Colin McGrath, SDLP Group Leader and health spokesperson, said: “I welcome this move by the Trust as a step in the right direction. They have listened to the concerns that people within our community have and acted accordingly.
“For many people the meals on wheels service is a vital link. It can often be the first communication that people have with others in a day and to remove it would have been worrying for many elderly people.
“I was approached by numerous constituents concerned that the reduction in this service would have resulted in overloaded freezers and less nutritious food and indeed elderly patients would have been better off getting local supermarkets to provide the service through their delivery services.
“I hope that this is not an interim proposal but the end to the threat of the removal of this vital community service for our elderly population.”
One elderly user speaking to Down News said: “I’m glad that the frozen meals idea has been shelved. My freezer box in my fridge wasn’t big enough to hold all the meals in one go anyway. It would have been difficult for less abled elderly and disabled people too to manage frozen food. Reading the labels too could have been a problem so I’m thankful the Trust is continuing with the chilled meal service. Anyway, it’s nice to see a face come to the door even for a few minutes.”
A spokesperson for the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust said: “The South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust has awarded a new contract for the Community Meals Service which will commence in September 2015.
“A contract had been awarded for a frozen meals service and unfortunately that provider was unable to fulfil the contract. The Trust has agreed for the service to be sustained as a Cooked Chilled Meals service under a new contract although there may be some changes to delivery patterns.”
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