"Stop evicting care patients"

By Ken Mack - 15/04/2008

In 1992, at the onset of my late mother-in-law’s dementia, my wife and I brought her to live with us - despite the difficulties we had caring for our twin disabled sons, and the fact that she could have qualified for free nursing and personal care. In 2002 she became so profoundly mentally and physically disabled we had no option but to place her in a private care home.

After two months we received a letter from the owners informing us that she and the 40 other residents were to be evicted because the “business” was no longer viable.

My family’s experience is far from unique. Tens of thousands of disabled frail and vulnerable elderly people have been cruelly and brutally evicted from local authority, private and charitable owned care homes during the term of this government and the back end of the previous Tory government; and many hundreds of these people have been reported as dying within days and a couple of weeks as a result of the trauma and upheaval of their shameful treatment.

For the last six years I have campaigned in vain - both in the UK and the EU - for the introduction of legislation that will guarantee all vulnerable elderly people legal security of tenure in a care home of their choice in the twilight of their lives. Remember that many of these people are war veterans who were prepared to risk their lives for us all.

On the 25th February 2004, 26,500 signatures in support of this legislation were presented for the personal attention of the Prime Minister Tony Blair. They were all but ignored save the statement: “We do not feel that there is any need to introduce extra legislation in this area”.

I have never been so worried about the future of the vulnerable in our society as I am today, because the continued privatisation of public services is exacerbating the situation.

It is obvious that if people with disabilities cannot obtain adequate community services they become even more disabled  - which makes neither moral nor economic sense. In 2006 Her Majesty’s Coroner for Cheshire - along with Coroners in other counties - ordered Police investigations into premature deaths as a result of care home evictions. His closing remarks are: “There should be protective legislation for the elderly. It does seem to me strange that whereas for those at the beginning of life there are adequate legal protections, such protections do not exist for the elderly who may be equally vulnerable”.

Before more vulnerable people die as a result of bad practice and eviction, I am appealing to this Government to introduce protective legislation, so they can all live out the remainder of their lives with the security, peace and dignity they all deserve.