UNISON, is holding a demonstration at today’s special meeting of the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) to demand that the current ban on admissions to NHS residential care homes is lifted before any further decisions are taken to close the homes.
Since October, the HSCB has held so-called ‘pre-consultation engagement meetings’ with residents and their relatives to discuss the criteria for assessing whether a home should close or remain open.
At the previous public board meeting in September, UNISON exposed this as a scam given that the doors of most of the homes had already been closed to new residents.
At present, four out of the five health trusts are operating an admissions ban for long-term residential care places with the aim that resident numbers will dwindle.
This is then used as the argument to say that, as demand has diminished, a home is no longer financially viable and can be closed.
Commenting on the consultation, UNISON regional organiser Joe McCusker said: “The board’s consultation on the future of NHS residential care homes is merely a publicity exercise to avoid further outcry of their plans to close homes.
“Residents of the homes and their families – and the public at large – will not be fooled by this meaningless consultation.”
Mr McCusker added: “Having a consultation exercise with residents and their families, while at the same time allowing trusts to run down their homes through a ban on admissions, is insulting to our elderly people living in these homes and makes a mockery of the consultation.
“If the HSCB are serious about meaningful consultation, then they must in the first instance health trusts to lift their ban on admissions.”
A special meeting of the HSCB will take place on Tuesday 29 October at 1.30pm in Grosvenor House, 5 Glengall Street, Belfast. Residents of the homes and their relatives will speak to the board at the meeting.
