‘Care homes closure a sham’ – McGreevy | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

‘Care homes closure a sham’ – McGreevy

Plans for a consultation regarding the future provision of Care Homes locally have been described as a ‘sham’ by the SDLP leader on Newry and Mourne Council.

SDLP Councillor Connaire McGreevy

And as a result a call has been made by Councillor Connaire McGreevy for a cross party political campaign in support of keeping open Statutory Residential Care Homes in the Southern Health Trust area.

“The fact that the Trust has already decided to stop admitting people, many of them in desperate need, to any of the five statutory homes under their control is the clearest possible signal that they have already made up their minds on the issue.

“Committed staff face the prospect of the dole and scores of frail care home residents are facing expulsion. If the official response is to deny that charge then the question to be asked of the Trust is straightforward.

McGreevy continued, “It is that if every resident currently living in any of their statutory homes wishes to remain there, will their views be fully respected?

“Because if that pledge is not given by the Trust, in advance of putting many vulnerable individual residents currently in their care through what will inevitably be a stressful process, the consultation exercise will have no credibility.

“Essentially it will be yet another example of the rubber stamping techniques already used in respect of cutting other health provision facilities in Newry and Mourne,” McGreevy insisted.

McGreevy said all members of the Trust Board had to examine their conscience in relation to support for ultimate closure of the five homes under threat.

“The most nauseating aspect of the project undertaken by the Trust is that it is prepared to work hand in glove with the Department of Health’s so called Transforming Your Care initiative. There is simply no part of that cold hearted plan that has care at the centre of what it is supposed to achieve.

“The truth is that the Trust, if it goes ahead with this scheme will destroy rather than transform care and commitment to the most vulnerable in our society.”

McGreevy said that unless there was a mobilisation of opposition to what he described as a “shameful abdication of responsibility by the Trust” the sight of elderly people “being evicted from what they viewed as their homes” would become a reality.

“This latest disgraceful initiative revealed by the Trust has nothing to do with choice but everything to do with cash. The Trust claims that it will carry out a detailed consultation exercise with residents.

“But its track record to date suggests that the Trust likes to have all the question boxes ticked in advance in order to have the answers it wants provided to the public,” Councillor McGreevy warned.

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Posted by on May 1 2013. Filed under Community, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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