Care home axe is devastating
The Scottish Government claims to care about health and social care – but the evidence suggests otherwise.
The Montrose Care Home in Foxbar will be closing in the coming months. Its elderly residents will be forced to move after a recent decision by Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership.
For all currently in the home, this will be devastating – for some, it could be lifethreatening. Many residents of Montrose Care Home suffer from dementia, and routine is essential for them. Families worry about how their loved ones will handle being uprooted from their homes.
Make no mistake the closure of excellent local public sector care homes is the privatisation of our care services here in Renfrewshire.
Older adults in Paisley have been through untold heartbreak with the news of the Montrose closure. This will also result in the loss of local jobs amongst the dedicated workforce.
But depressingly, the story doesn’t end there.
The Mirin and Milldale day centres for adults with learning disabilities – also run by the HSCP - may be subject to closure and merger too. This centralisation plan, as yet unconfirmed following a legal challenge against it, would see dozens of vulnerable people lose out on lifeline support in their daily lives.
Last week, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar MSP visited Paisley and joined Paisley and Renfrewshire South Labour MP candidate Johanna Baxter and I to listen to some of those affected by these closures, mergers and the potential withdrawal of local head injury services.
Speaking to families, he learned first-hand about the devastating impact the plans could have on them and their loved ones.
Renfrewshire HSCP has stated that it is cutting the services to help fill a £14.7m deficit in its budget. £8m of vital funding reserves will go to fill the gap. These reserves should be going into making improvements to services – not to making ends meet.
Renfrewshire’s budget situation is being hit by a big double whammy. Firstly, the council is having to pay millions to fix their own incompetence over the Dargavel schools debacle. Secondly, the Scottish Government keeps cutting our local budgets.
Renfrewshire HSCP is funded partly by Renfrewshire
Council and partly by the NHS. Both organisations have seen real-terms cuts to their budgets in recent years from the Scottish Government though. And cuts to budgets, sadly, means cuts to services.
The Labour Party believes that our public services need more support, not less. That is why we have advocated scrapping the non-dom tax loophole for the super rich, to free up hundreds of millions of pounds for public use.
Local families are speaking loudly and clearly - they are demanding their vital care services are protected.
The SNP government and council cannot continue to sit back and let this happen.
If they won’t, then they should step aside so that the most vulnerable people in our community are provided with the support that they so desperately need.