Monday evening saw around 80 people turn up to a meeting aimed at trying to ensure that respite care centre, Westminster House, isn’t closed by the Isle of Wight Council.
As regular readers will now be aware, the ruling Conservative cabinet made a decision to recommend its closure and relocation of services to Gouldings and Adelaide, on Wednesday last week and the indications at the meeting, were that the closure would be voted through the later in the week (today).
Those at the meeting included some of the service users; relatives of service users; care staff; and many of the non-Conservative county councillors.
No Conservative councillors present
Despite every county councillor being invited to the meeting, of note, was the total absence of any Conservative elected members, even those whose wards cover the area affected.
Despite some hard times that have been borne by the parents and relatives of late, the mood in the room was positive.
These are people have, by a twist of fate, become used to battling.
Bill McKenzie from the Carer’s Forum said he was “astonished and disgusted” at how the Whole Life Group had been used by Cllr Mazillius in the Cabinet meeting.
“What do we do in the face of these lies?” he said, “Frankly, no-one is on our side.”
Bed blocking for Gouldings’ residents
Councillor for Freshwater, John Howe, said he’d known Gouldings since it opened, pointing out that the basement at Gouldings, where the IWC plan to relocate the Westminster House accommodation to, is presently used for intermediate care for the current residents.
If it were taken away, he said, the elderly residents will be forced to stay in hospital longer and bed-blocking will occur at the hospital.
His summary, “Everyone’s suffering – no one’s benefiting. Newport is where it (respite care) should be.”
Decision being railroaded through
Unison representative, Mark Chiverton, told the meeting that when he’d raised issues with the acting-head of service they appeared surprised.
“It can only be explained that they’ve made a decision and they just want to railroad it through,” he concluded.
One of the Westminster House staff said that “The staff at Westminster House don’t support the move – We’ve been told that the parents are behind it – it’s clear tonight that it’s not the case.”
Shocked at process
Councillors who had turned up to the meeting expressed their concern not only at the closure, but also the process instigated by the council.
Cllr Jonathon Bacon said that he was, “Shocked and appalled in the last 18 months in the way things have been done.”
Cllr Rodney Downer pointed out that for most of the people being looked after that adapting to change has been their biggest fear (the autistic don’t like change)
One care worker surprised the room by saying, “We were told we offer Platinum service and that we should change it to a gold service.”
No doubt more voices of concern will be raised at tonight’s rally and council meeting.
