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Will grubby fingers get hold of residential care homes?
• JUST before Christmas 2007 my wife sustained a serious stroke.
From the time the ambulance crew picked her up from the bedroom floor, to her stay in hospital, and the care she is receiving in her present residential home, I can only say a humble thank you for the painstaking efforts of all those who have been involved in her welfare.
But the various reports in the New Journal that private investors may get their grubby fingers on Camden’s residential facilities is, to say the least, alarming.
Why, one may ask, should anybody wish to invest in old people in the way it is suggested if it is not to make a profit? And profit, in this case, can only be enhanced by raising charges and cutting services.
No doubt some smart-alec will claim that waste can be eliminated and costs thereby reduced. So are elderly inmates to be told that they must curtail their hard demands for laundry services, cut down on their requests for staff to escort them to the toilet and turn the clock back some 20 years regarding their behaviour patterns?
I sincerely hope that Camden Council, which claims to have the interests of all its residents at heart, will firmly reject any privatisation proposals that will lead to disadvantaged citizens suffering unnecessarily.
Peter Richards
Highgate Road, NW5
Provision for elderly
• CAMDEN is looking at the options they have in dealing with the demographic changes in the next 20 years because of the estimated national shortfall of £60 billion in the available funding for the provision of services for the elderly during this period.
As part of the planning for the next 10 years Camden has issued a consultation document, Who should own and run our future care homes? with the subtitle What are the options?
This deals with the ownership and management of homes for the older people of the borough. Camden is currently considering four options:
1. Camden to own and manage the new care homes;
2. Camden to retain ownership but a specialist provider to manage the new care homes;
3. Camden to retain ownership but identify a partner for them to build the new facilities and for the service to be managed by either that partner or for it to be put out to a competitive tender;
4. Camden to sell the care home sites to private care home providers for them to build the homes and manage the service.
My own preference, and I suspect that of most of the residents of Camden, is the first option.
The Camden preference is a version of option three.
All but the first option would reduce its responsibility for dealing with problems and pass these on to you and me.
I would urge all who are interested in this area to read this document and consider which option should be adopted, as this problem will be with us for the next 20 years at least.
John H Shaw
Secretary
The Robert Morton Tenants and Residents Association and Director/Trustee
Age Concern Camden
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