COUNCILLORS are to be advised to close Luton’s last remaining Town Hall run care homes for the elderly ahead of a meeting to decide their fate on Monday night.
A report given to Luton Borough Council’s executive committee will recommend that Councillors agree to the closure of dementia unit The Laurels, in Ely Way, and the Westlea care home, in Leagrave High Street, washing their hands of elderly care in the town.
But residents’ worried families have vowed to continue fighting the closures, seeking legal advice and asking Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins for help.
David Walsh, who is acting as spokesman for residents families, said: “We feel as a family group that we are totally opposed to these closures and the effect they are going to have on both the residents and their relatives.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to keep them open.”
Relatives of residents at the two homes were sent letters last week which revealed that the executive will be told to approve plans “to re-provide The Laurels first with Westlea following three months later.”
But throughout a 90 day consultation, residents’ relatives have raised concerns regarding standards of care at alternative private sector homes in Luton, particularly for dementia sufferers such as those at The Laurels.
At a recent meeting with council staff, one relative, whose mother suffers from dementia, said: “I have explored the private sector for my mum. We first placed her in one of these state of the art homes you talk about and she lasted two and a half days due to her behaviour. They called an ambulance for her to go for a mental health assessment and before she was at the hospital they were refusing to take her back.”
Another added: “My mother was found wandering outside (a private sector) home at 2.30am. The police informed me, not the home. They refused to take her back and we were given her belongings in a black plastic bag.”
A Council spokesman said yesterday: “With some state-of-the-art facilities opening across Luton, we needed to understand the suitability of The Laurels and Westlea as venues for providing high-quality care for elderly residents.
“Current residents, their relatives and carers, staff and the general public have all been fully involved throughout the 90 day consultation and recommendations to be made to the Council’s Executive are based on its findings.
“The health and wellbeing of the current residents, as is always the case, is our number one priority and will be the key factor in any decision that is made. One of the main recommendations that has come from the consultation is to ensure that all residents will be supported individually to make decisions about where they wish to move to.”
The Luton News reported back in October that of a list of 16 alternative private care homes recommended for residents of The Laurels and Westlea, four were deemed below standard by the Care Quality Commission.
Of those homes, Milliner House, in Marsh Road, has since improved and now meets minimum standards in all five of the CQC’s key assessment areas.
But St Brendans, in Ashburnham Road; Mulberry Court, in Watermead Road; and The Elizabethan, in Old Bedford Road, still fall short in at least one area, while the Laurels and Westlea passed in all five criteria as recently as October.