Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Yesterday in the Assembly I challenged the Health Minister to deny if he had given a Ministerial direction that the current ban on admissions to residential care homes in operation across many of the Health Trusts should stay in place during the supposed consultation on their viability. The exchange between myself and the Minister is reproduced below:
Mr Allister: I suggest that the consultation on the viability of statutory residential homes has been a farce. It was made so by the Minister in his direction that the present admissions policy should persist during the consultation, which, in the Northern Trust area, means no admissions. Therefore, to try to evaluate the viability of homes to which you are denying admissions is to tie the hands of those homes behind their backs, making it a farcical exercise. The Minister has ducked and dived on who gave that direction. At a consultation meeting that I was at, the HSC was clear that the direction came from the Minister. Is he now man enough to admit that he directed that the current admissions policy should persist during the consultation?
Mr Poots: Not unusually for the Member, he gets it wrong —
Mr Allister: Just tell us.
Mr Poots: — because there is an open admissions policy in a number of trust areas, whereby people choose to go to other sectors. That is just a matter of fact. There are hundreds of available places in residential care facilities across Northern Ireland, which is why the restrictions were put there in the first instance. Indeed, Members from parties other than mine lobby that we should give greater support to the private residential sector at this time because it has a lot of empty spaces, and that could cause problems.
I make it very clear to the House that the consultation process that we have been going through is no farce. We will await the outcome of that consultation and make appropriate decisions without —
Mr Allister: Did you give the direction?
Mr Principal Deputy Speaker: Order.
Mr Poots: — prejudging the outcome. The Member has been well known for prejudging a range of outcomes —
Mr Allister: Did you give the direction?
Mr Principal Deputy Speaker: Order.
Mr Poots: — and he is very well known for getting it wrong.
“I wrote to the Minister’s willing fall guy when it comes to issues such as this, John Compton, putting the same point to him a month ago. Interesting Mr Compton has still not replied.
“The Minister needs to be open and honest with the public. Whether it is in relation to the scanner at the Royal or the admissions policy to care homes we deserve clarity.
“The reality, as the Minister very well knows, is that unless the current admissions policy changes the homes will become unviable, not because of lack of interest in their services from elderly people but because there is a deliberate policy to deny access to those services.”
Note to editors:
Mr Allister’s letter to Mr Compton of 12th February which remains unanswered was as follows:
Dear Mr Compton,
Last night I attended a HSC event in Antrim on the future of residential homes.
During the meeting Mr Kevin Keenan, Assistant Director, said that in response to a request from HSC for policy direction the minister directed that the present admissions policy, which in the Northern Trust case means no new admissions, should remain unchanged till HSC had completed its work on residential homes. Can you confirm the accuracy of this statement and indicate when and how that direction was given.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Jim Allister