An emergency alarm service used by elderly and vulnerable people in the Western Isles has been restored following an outage which interrupted services.
The BT network issue affecting analogue alarms began on Friday, January 10, after what Futurescot understands was a ‘human error’ following request for a line to be disconnected.
Realising the error, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the local council which serves 26,000 residents across Lewis and Harris, North Uist, South Uist and Barra, then asked for the line to be reinstated.
A source said however that due to an amount of having passed since the request was made, engineering work was then required from both BT and Openreach, which took a couple of days to complete – with the service fully restored on Saturday.
A council spokesperson said: “The issue affecting some Comhairle telecare alarms has been resolved. The Faire service is now fully functional and restored to normal service.
“The Comhairle thanks all those who assisted and supported elderly and vulnerable people during this period and thanks service users for their patience.”
In a statement on Friday 10 January the Comhairle stated that the issue was “expected to be fixed early this week but due to delays in the network provider progressing an identified solution it remains unresolved,” the council said.
A group message was then sent to all home carers and the council called impacted individuals over the weekend to ensure awareness.
The Faire Telecare Service is operated 24/7 by the council’s customer services team on behalf of social and community services, providing an automatic link from the user’s home to the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC).
The equipment in the home consists of a main unit the size of a telephone receiver and a small pendant which can be worn around the neck or on the wrist.
Last week, it was announced that the council is facing a £4 million funding deficit, leaving it facing a ‘challenging financial position’. Proposals on the table include a further use of the Comhairle’s limited reserves, a Council Tax increase and reductions in service budgets.
Cllr Paul Steele, leader of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar said: “While increases in funding are much needed and are very welcome the additional uncommitted funding that has been awarded to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is again simply not enough to deliver our services to the public at their current level. I have written to the First Minister and Finance Secretary to seek assurances on the Comhairle’s overall financial position and alongside COSLA colleagues will continue to make the case for additional resources.
“I would like to stress that decisions to raise Council Tax or reduce services will not be taken lightly. The current financial position of the Comhairle means that we must make difficult decisions and while we will always look to limit the impact budgetary decisions have on the public it is inevitable that they will be felt throughout our communities. As we work on setting this year’s budget we will continue to make the case for change and public sector reform. The Comhairle cannot continue to cutback services year on year and the people of the Western Isles cannot continue to be asked to pay more and receive less. It is the view of the Comhairle that progressing public sector reform is the route to break this cycle.”
