Care home consultation launches

The axe is looming over numerous local care homes - including homes at Thackeray Place in Limavady, William Street and Rectory Field in Londonderry, and Greenfield in Strabane - thanks to the recommendations made in the healthcare reform plan known as ‘Transforming Your Care’.

Transforming Your Care recommends cuts to “at least” half of all residential NHS care homes in Northern Ireland. Details of potential closures for a number of homes in the Western Trust area, across Limavady, Londonderry and Strabane, emerged earlier this year. Amid widespread public anger, the Health Minister Edwin Poots stepped in and scrapped the proposals.

However, a revamped consultation process has since been launched. A temporary reprieve has been handed to all the homes facing closure after the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) confirmed at the end of last month that there will be no care home closures until 2015.

A fresh public consultation, announced in August, has been launched this week after the special meeting of the HSCB. When the original announcement was made, the director of Social Care and Children, Fionnuala McAndrew, said the revamped process would be more transparent.

However, residents of homes facing the prospect of closure such as Thackeray Place in Limavady and Rectory Fields in Londonderry, slammed the fresh consultation for being “unsettling” to those who call the facilities home.

Public sector worker’s union NIPSA last night called on the HSCB to scrap the entire review. Patricia McKeown, Regional Secretary for Unison, said: “UNISON will call on the Board to scrap the review and open the doors of NHS homes to put an end to the distress which many residents are living under.

“NHS Residential Care in Northern Ireland is of the highest quality. This has been tested and proven. Ironically NHS residents have been pressured into moving into residential care in the private home – Cherry Tree House -which is hitting the headlines at the moment.

“The views of residents and future care home users have been utterly excluded from the proposed criteria for deciding which homes close and which stay open.

“This is a fundamental betrayal of the commitments given by the Minister and the silver tongued assurances from the Board. We anticipate a big turnout from residents and their families at (the) Board meeting. We expect them to have a fair chance to have their voices heard. We expect what they say to then be acted upon rather than dismissed.”

Residents were informed of the fresh consultation in August when they received the following letter from the director of Social Care and Children for the HSCB: “My name is Fionnuala McAndrew and I am writing to you in my role as Director of Social Care at the Health and Social Care Board. I have been asked by the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Mr Edwin Poots, MLA, to review the changes proposed by Health and Social Care Trusts regarding statutory residential care homes.

“I know that the proposals announced earlier this year has caused some residents and families concern about their future care arrangements and how any change might be managed.

“The Minister became involved in halting the Trusts processes on 3rd May and I was asked to review the proposals in order to make sure that future changes will be dealt with sensitively and ensure that the future needs of residents are fully considered.

“I have set up a regional review group which has met regularly over the past few months to ensure we can move forward in the best possible way. I am aware that some residents, their families and staff have felt that there has been no update on progress since 3rd May.

This letter aims to reassure you about what is happening.

“It is clear to me that a number of statutory residential care homes have been, or were, going through a process of significant change. I have seen examples of this has been managed in a way that suits residents, their families and staff and I do not want to stop these changes taking place.

“However, there still needs to be clarity about the future role and function of the remaining statutory homes and I intend to start this process in the near future in two stages. In the firts stage I will be seeking views on the criteria which should be used to assess where changes will happen and the sequence and timing of when this needs to occur.

“The agreed criteria will then be used by Trusts to assess their care homes and inform the Health and Social Care Board of their future intentions. The Health and Social Care Board will examine these proposals thoroughly to ensure that the future care needs of older people can be appropriately met. I anticipate that this will happen in the first three months of 2014.

“Any major changes, including the proposed closure of any home, will require consultation. This is the second stage of the process and during this stage I will be encouraging and supporting open and honest discussion about any proposed changes.

“I want to assure you that no final decisions have been made at this stage. However, the Health and Social Care Board firmly believes that our services need to change in line with Transforming Your Care to deliver better care for older people which will enable them to stay at home and remain independent where possible.

“The desire to improve services for older people is the single most important reason for wanting to have these discussions and why I believe that positive changes can happen by working with you, your families and staff. I look forward to doing so over the coming months.”

Speaking after reading the letter in August, Waterside woman Frances Anderson, whose 85-year-old mother Irene has been a Thackeray Place resident for over three years, said: “It is up in the air completely, very much so. I still think they have made their mind up to close it. They are saying they are going to consult, they are going to see each person, but I think they have still made their minds up to close them. They said it is inevitable that a considerable number of the homes will close. That could still mean all of them. I do think they have made their minds up but they are going to pretend to do it, as they put it, sensitively.”