**UPDATE 4.08PM FRIDAY 1 FEBRUARY **The council has been informed the alarm pendant system is now up and working as normal Island residents are being asked to keep an extra watchful eye on vulnerable friends, family and neighbours following a nationwide failure of the telecommunications system which supports the Wightcare alarm pendant system.
The fault may affect up to 2,000 vulnerable residents on the Island who have the emergency call pendants operated through Wightcare. The Isle of Wight Council is contacting those users who it knows are particularly vulnerable by telephone to inform them of the fault. Additional visits will be made by the Wightcare team when calls are not answered. The council is also contacting homecare agencies and organisations that visit vulnerable residents asking them to be extra vigilant and has also agreed to fund the extra check on the most vulnerable clients. As a further measure, it is also appealing to the friends, families and neighbours of Wightcare users to check up on them if they are worried. Mark Howell, Isle of Wight Council head of commissioning – community wellbeing and social care, said: "This unfortunate interruption of the service is a national issue but naturally our concern is for those who use it on the Island, many of who are very vulnerable. "Hopefully the fault will be repaired quickly but in the meantime we are taking steps to protect these vulnerable residents but we would also call on the wider community to assist us as well. "We would appeal to anyone who knows a pendant user to keep an extra vigilant watch over them until the national problem with the pendant communication is fixed." Anyone with queries or concern can contact the Wightcare Service on 821105.
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