Dungannon Care Home under threat

A DUNGANNON Care Home is facing an uncertain future after its parent company ran out of money.
Southern Cross Healthcare, which is responsible for operating Geanann Care Home - began under-paying its landlords this week as if faced up to a bill totalling £230m.
The purpose-built 54-bed nursing home, situated on the Ballygawley Road, was constructed at the height of the property boom and opened in 2008.
It offers care for people with dementia and challenging behaviours related to mental health.
The extent of the crisis facing Southern Cross, which owns 23 care centres across Northern Ireland, was exposed when the firm, which leases most of its properties, revealed it had unilaterally decided to cut the amount of rent it paid `by almost a third.
It is to defer 30 per cent of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” to work out a restructuring package.
However, the measure has not been agreed with landlords.
Age NI chief executive Anne O’Reilly has warned that, whatever happens, the wishes of elderly residents must come first.
She said: “There are basically three ways to care for older people: in their homes; in residential care or in hospitals.
“More and more people are choosing to remain at home as their first choice so we think this whole issue needs to be reviewed. And we get the sense that this is beginning to happen in Northern Ireland.
“This links to the Southern Cross story because there has been systematic underfunding going back five years in this area and we are beginning to see the effect. Only 0.1 per cent of public spending goes into elderly social care compared to five per cent into the health service as a whole.
“The feeling is that things are getting tighter and tighter for social care outside hospital which results in less spending on residential care homes. This results in residents and their families having to pay top-up fees and selling their homes to pay for care. We are asking for a fundamental review.
“We are getting reassurances that Southern Cross is working through these difficulties to find a way to make it work. But we have to make sure older people’s wishes are paramount in how Southern Cross moves forward.”
Source http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/