Relatives express concerns about South Gloucestershire care home closures (From Gazette Series)

Relatives express concerns about South Gloucestershire care home closures

8:00am Thursday 2nd September 2010 in

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THE daughter of an elderly resident caught up in South Gloucestershire's care home closures has launched a campaign to delay the closure of the homes.

Jan Williams, from Yate, has said moving her 91-year-old mother, Megan Loosemore, from Yate's Wapley Court Care Home, would break her mother's heart.

"Luckily my mother has no idea what is going on, she is in blissful ignorance. If she did know, it would break her heart," said Mrs Williams.

"My mother looks on Wapley Court as her home, so do they all, the residents who live there, and the carers are so good."

Wapley Court is one of eight care homes earmarked for closure by South Gloucestershire council to make way for two new state-of-the-art homes and 700 extra care housing units.

Mrs Williams told the Gazette it was the speed of the closures that concerned her and the time they had to wait for the new homes to open.

She said: "They just don't seem to realise you can't kick old people out of their homes and not build a new one until 2013.

"Apparently because things went so well at Frome House they are now thinking of starting assessments at Wapley Court as early as this October.

Mrs Williams said she was also concerned about the new extra care housing the local authority was promoting.

"They keep thrusting extra care housing down people's throats, but they are no use to my mother. My mother can't even put the kettle on let alone live in sheltered housing," she said.

Mrs Williams has written to Conservative councillor Matthew Riddle, South Gloucestershire's cabinet member for community care and housing, and local MP Steve Webb, who has given his support.

He said: "I went to a meeting at Wapley Court with staff and council officials and it had to be dragged out of Peter Murphy that they were speeding up the closure.

"Once the starter gun has been fired things move quickly. The pretence that we can start closing Wapley Court this autumn but it won't finish until the summer of 2012 is dishonest.

"This is a crucial issue, particularly at Wapley Court, for staff and residents who moved there, not so long ago, on the pretence it wouldn't be closing for two years."

Cllr Riddle said the authority had consulted with Age Concern, the South Gloucestershire Senior Citizens Forum and residents about its plans to upgrade its out of date care homes, receiving the support from 90 per cent of respondents.

He said: "The Chase and Frome House are to be the sites of the two new state-of-the-art residential care homes and so a team of dedicated social workers has been working with residents and families to find appropriate, alternative accommodation, and this process has gone smoothly with some really positive outcomes for the residents concerned.

"It is important to stress that this doesn't necessarily mean that the next two homes, including Wapley Court, will close any earlier. It simply allows more time to be spent with residents and their families by this dedicated team of social workers, and their needs will always be the most important consideration in determining timescales. We could not be any clearer about that.

"So for Steve Webb to turn up to an internal staff meeting, chose to completely and utterly misrepresent what Peter Murphy said and scare-monger about such a sensitive issue is irresponsible and absolutely appalling."

Mrs Williams is now keen to hear from other concerned relatives. Anyone who want to join the campaign can sign up at Wapley Court. Alternatively conntact Mrs Williams at johnjan@uwclub.net