PLANS to close more than half of Northern Ireland’s state-run residential care homes need to be “carefully managed”, a charity for the elderly has cautioned.
Plans announced by the Health and Social Care Board will see at least 28 of the current 56 facilities shut their doors within five years but, in theory, all 56 could be closed if alternative local arrangements can be put in place.
Anne O’Reilly, chief executive of Age NI, said any changes which allow older people to remain in their own homes are welcome, but warned it was “imperative that during any period of change” older people are cared for and protected and that their individual needs are identified and met.
“Any changes, such as a reduction in the number of statutory residential homes, must be carefully planned, managed and delivered with the total involvement of older people themselves and their carers and families,” she said.
“Age NI has been calling for a fundamental review of social care for a long time. Older people have told us that they believe the current social care system is broken and we all have to be prepared to take difficult decisions and make the right hard choices in an effort to positively influence future delivery.”
Ms O’Reilly called for “clear and decisive leadership” from the department of health and added: “Older people tell us time and time again that they want to remain at home as long as they can. Social care is the lynchpin – if we get it right, everything else falls into place.”
Health and Social Care Board chief executive John Compton said the £70 million overhaul of services was aimed at improving an outdated way of providing care for the elderly, although he stressed that no one would be forced out of residential care against their wishes.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Nolan Show yesterday morning, Mr Compton said: “I don’t think you would find anyone who would disagree about the change.
“We want to be able to maintain more people at home and to do that we have to change how we invest the current money, so hence there’s a proposal about residential care.”
Mr Compton said the new arrangements were about spending the budget more effectively.
He said: “We’re going to spend the money in people’s homes, and we’re going to spend the money in supported housing, and working along with colleagues in DSD – the department who build the support housing – and housing associations to provide an alternative form of care, a form of care by the way which older people universally tell us they want.”
Mr Compton said they were very keen to hear the views of the Northern Ireland public on the proposed changes.
He said: “I have been out on many public meetings and some of the most influential pieces in some of the documents that have been written in recent times have come directly from quotes and from positions made by members of the public who have just simply stood up and said ‘I don’t know everything about the health and social care system but this is what it’s like for me, would you pay attention to that’. I think when people do that and they do it in a measured and thoughtful way people listen.”
The new arrangements relate only to the state-run residential care homes, leaving the facilities for dementia or nursing home care unaffected.
Privately-owned facilities, which make up around three-quarters of residential care homes, will not be directly affected by the proposals either.
“We have better housing with care solutions, we have better support in people’s homes, and as you look forward into the future there is less demand for residential care,” Mr Compton said.
Health Minister Edwin Poots has insisted the proposal is part of his wider reform agenda – with more emphasis on enabling older people to remain at home – and not a cost-saving measure.
The minister also confirmed there would be job losses in the NHS.
Around 1,600 healthcare jobs are set to go in the next five years, but Mr Poots said he expected these to be managed without the need for compulsory redundancies.
Details of which homes are likely to close are expected to be announced around spring 2013.