Drumhaw residents need to be told painful truth

Editorial Department • Published 17 Sep 2010 09:00 0 Comments

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Dear Sir, - The fate of Drumhaw Residential Home was decided during the periods of management by previous local Trusts and the Western Board long before the present issues presented. During this period Fermanagh had three public sector elderly persons residential homes, Silverhill, Coleshill and Drumhaw. It also had Devenish House, a learning disabled residential facility and all of these provided quality care for the residents.

Silverhill and Coleshill were closed during the periods when privatisation was growing in popularity. The Board argued that their multi-occupancy rooms did not conform to modern standards, did not comply with the registration requirements, were old, expensive to run and there was better provision in the growing private sector. This of course was not true in all cases as some of the private homes had similar issues with standards. What the private homes did however, was to remove the problems of management and human resource issues from the Board and place these in the hands of individual home owners who were able to create their own terms and conditions of employment.

The relatively recent history of private provision of residential care for learning disabled people in Fermanagh highlights the dangers of placing all residential care in the private sector. The closure of Devenish House eventually resulted in financial empires being built by the development of private residential facilities providing services for persons who had previously been cared for in their own homes.

When the private owner decided to dispose of the business it was taken over by an organisation which assumed responsibility for the management of the care element and by a housing association which purchased the properties and many millions of pounds changed hands in the deal. When the care aspects became impossible to manage economically, the Western Trust were then forced to come to the rescue of the residents and take on the management responsibility for their care and the privately employed staff, all of which caused similar major trauma as is being experienced in Drumhaw, for residents, their relatives and staff.

The care of residents and the future of staff at Drumhaw are two separate issues. The latter is no doubt of great concern for those involved however the residents’ future care provision should take priority and not be used by the Unions to confuse the issue or as a publicity or bargaining tool in their negotiations with the Trust.

The newly built residential facility in Lisnaskea with its ground floor accommodation, wider access routes and large en-suite rooms surely provides much better physical accommodation, than exists in Drumhaw. The quality of care must be of similar standard as both are monitored by the RQIA. It is obvious that as some of the remaining residents leave for whatever reason, it will become impossible to justify retaining the facility as a residential unit as the support services costs such as heat, light, power, fire, security, catering, cleaning, maintenance etc, will become totally out of proportion to the cost of front line care. It is very understandable that these elderly people see Drumhaw as their own home and to have them move would be a very painful episode in their life, however they should be told the painful truth of the future position of Drumhaw in the most sympathetic way and given total support to help them absorb the information.

It surely is a reflection on our society that the population of Fermanagh, who were once well served by three homes for the elderly with a total occupancy of approximately one hundred residents, now need at least 17, some of which house more than the sum of all three previous homes. Some would argue that this business that appears to deal in the misfortune of some of the weakest in our society and in the case of the most unfortunate, comes close to bullying and selling human beings for profit, is morally wrong when it has resulted in turning some individuals into millionaires.

Yours faithfully,

Milestones

This letter appeared in Impartial Reporter 16 Sep 10

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