Business

Trackars Healthcare first to launch travel payments for community care workers

Patricia Casement, managing director Trackars Healthcare
Patricia Casement, managing director Trackars Healthcare Patricia Casement, managing director Trackars Healthcare

COMMUNITY carers in the north are to benefit from a new payment scheme launched by Trackars Healthcare which will pay mileage costs between home visits.

The first Northern Irish healthcare provider to offer the combined payment for mileage and travel time, Trackars will introduce the new package this month.

More than 100 community carers will be remunerated, standing to benefit from an average pay increase of 10 to 18 per cent on their weekly wage.

Patricia Casement, managing director of Trackars Healthcare, said: "There are thousands of healthcare workers in Northern Ireland who are delivering vital care work every day in communities in Northern Ireland.

"With our aging population, at-home care is helping elderly and vulnerable people to maintain as independent lives as possible, while remaining at home.

"We recognise and appreciate the instrumental work which our care workers undertake daily to allow this to happen."

The scheme will cost the company on average £152,316 annually, but Ms Casement said it was money well spent.

"Aligned to our company values, it’s always been our goal to ensure that our high standards are also implemented with regards to staff remuneration," she added.

"That’s why we’ve decided to become the first healthcare agency in Northern Ireland to pay travel time and mileage, ensuring that our team is properly rewarded for all of the hours they spend both delivering services and travelling to and from calls."

A bespoke software system was developed over the last few months to calculate and manage payment for mileage and travel times based on individual rotas.

This will ensure that staff members automatically receive their additional payments as part of their weekly salary without having to keep a record of daily travel times and mileage themselves.

Registered care worker, Annmarie Quinn from Downpatrick said the extra money would be a massive bonus.

"It’s commonplace for care workers in Northern Ireland not to receive any remuneration for the time and fuel that it takes to travel between service users’ calls," she said.

"For me, this equates to around ten hours’ travel time, so it will make a huge difference to my salary."

Trackers Healthcare was founded by 2006 by Ms Casement, a registered nurse, with the business plan to provide healthcare and nursing services throughout Northern Ireland.

Staffing solutions are now offered to the Belfast, Northern, South Eastern and Southern Health and Social Care Trusts in the north and just last year the company opened a new office in Downpatrick which launched with the addition of 40 new jobs.