Merits of care hub plan split opinion
South Lanarkshire Council’s plans to develop the Blantyre care hub have proved controversial.
While the new centre will serve the wider Hamilton area it led to an outcry against planned closures to Blantyre’s Kirkton House and Mcwhirter House in Larkhall.
The council maintained that the older design at these care homes made them ill-suited to modern care and accessibility standards.
They claimed that research showed most people wish to stay at home – and the new care hub model makes that possible.
Following the announcement of the planned closures, South Lanarkshire Council leader Councillor John Ross said: “While our staff deliver the best possible care, we know that four of our homes are nearing the end of their design life.
“This is an opportunity to develop a new model of care designed to improve the lives of older people by supporting them to stay in their own homes.”
But late last year in Larkhall, a public meeting was held to discuss plans to close the only council-run care home in the town.
The meeting was organised by Larkhall Councillor Andy Carmichael and it heard from the families of residents anxious about the closure and the alternatives.
Labour slammed the “lack of meaningful consultation” with the workforce, residents and families and called for the closures to be stopped.
The party said that if all phases of the care home modernisation were implemented there was a projected cut of around 100 fixed beds across the local authority area.
Councillor Carmichael said: “Council-run care homes in South Lanarkshire are the best in the country. It beggars belief that anyone would want to shut them down.”
The plans for the new care hub in Blantyre were even discussed in debate at the Scottish Parliament last year.
Monica Lennon, Central Scotland Labour MSP, lodged a motion for debate and called for the local authority’s SNP administration to halt the closure of Mcwhirter House in Larkhall and Kirkton House in Blantyre.
“Although it is welcome that the new hub will include transitional care beds and services to help people who are able to return to their own homes, it is not a like-for-like replacement, ”she said.
“We have an ageing population and if the council push ahead with plans to shut care homes it will, undoubtedly, lead to increased reliance on the private sector to provide care for older people which can mean inflated costs and variation in the quality of care.”