A HOME care company has claimed it has been forced to end visits to people in rural villages because of concerns over staffing levels.

At least six people in villages near Aberystwyth have been told by Affinity Homecare that the company will be stopping their care services from 4 December.

Amongst those affected is terminally ill Capel Bangor man and former gravedigger Barry Jones who could be forced to move out of Ceredigion to either Newtown or Tywyn because of a lack of suitable care places locally.

Another client who has also been told his care package will be removed from 4 December said: “Four weeks ago I had a call from my social worker saying that Affinity were cancelling my care package.

“I’ve had no contact from Affinity. I’ve phoned them, but they’re not returning my call. An explanation would be nice.

“Social services think it is very doubtful that they’ll be able to find somebody to come in to me. It’s going to be very difficult to sort this out.

“The timing makes it very difficult to find an alternative, especially when you have a holiday in the middle.

“A little bit of me feels they shouldn’t be able to do this.”

However, the company, which recently took over the work of Mid Wales Home Care, said staffing issues had been a consideration in the removal of care packages.

A spokesperson said: “Affinity recently took over this business from a local provider who quite simply didn’t have enough staff to facilitate the workload safely.

“We have reviewed all aspects of everybody receiving care from Affinity in Ceredigion and made the very difficult decision to give the contracted notice of four weeks on a very small number of packages."

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