Sadly, once again, following on from the recent BBC ‘Winterbourn View’ expose, last evening BBC TV Panorama programme exposed two more appalling lots of cruel neglect and brutal abuse meted out this time to extremely vulnerable residents at Oban House Nursing Home in Croydon and the Old Deanery Nursing Home in Braintree.
Forgive me, I beg your indulgence and feel obliged to repeat that in 2004 together with the sadly late Alf Morris the former Manchester MP and architect of the groundbreaking 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act who was appointed the world’s first ever Minister for the Disabled in 1974.
We presented 26,500 signatures on a petition at 10 Downing Street gathered from all over the UK requesting ‘an urgent holistic protective Bill of Rights’ for all residents in UK care homes.
Sadly our petition was ignored by the previous government, save a reply which read : “We do not feel that there is any need to introduce extra legislation in this area”:
Undaunted, in 2006, kindly sponsored by the Professional Footballers Association and together with their Assistant Chief Executive Bobby Barnes and Equality Executive Simone Pound we presented at 10 Downing Street a letter to the Prime Minister Tony Blair and every member of parliament imploring them all to put aside their political differences and organise a debate hopefully culminating in adequate legal protection for all residents in UK care homes.
I only received 23 mostly negative replies?
In light of these continuing horrendous abuses of our extremely vulnerable elderly residents in UK care homes, clearly, there is an urgent need for the introduction of adequate protective legislation for these residents in care homes.
Our politicians should all hang their heads in shame at their inertia over the years towards this chronic scandalous problem, they could redeem some of their lost public respect by introducing :
“A HOLISTIC PROTECTIVE BILL OF RIGHTS” FOR ALL RESIDENTS LIVING IN UK CARE HOMES NOW!
Ken Mack
