Thursday, October 01, 2009

Respite care – you have to go to Inverness to get it now! Liz speaks out.

The Gurn has learned that another part of the fabric that is our community has been removed from us. Respite care provision will not be available in the town. If members of your family or friends go into respite care you will now have to go to Inverness if you want to visit them. There can be no excuse, this is a cruel move and an attack on community. A town the size of Nairn should be able to deal with this in its own right. This move is anathema to the spirit of the caring community that is Nairn.

Also it isn’t as if there are a lack of facilities to provide it here. Provost Liz told the Gurn:

‘When Corsee closed I lobbied hard to get a commitment for respite provision in Nairn and it was based at St Olaf, 2 weeks ago this was withdrawn and clients from Nairn will now have to go to Inverness for respite. Families have told me and it's clear this means when they are going away and an older person goes into respite it'll be far more difficult for friends to visit.

This happened because of the block tender contract for respite, which was about providing care closer to home so clients wouldn't have to travel so far for the service - doesn't apply to Nairn obviously.

As to the front page of the Nairnshire 117,000 additional hours of home care?! - so far no additional extra hours of care have been provided and all that has happened is In-house (Council) home care clients are being transferred to the private sector - no new clients or extra hours as far as I can see. The £1million a year extra for home care was agreed when SNP was in administration and was intended to be used to support and extend the council home care service.’

It doesn’t look good, more proof that everything in Nairn is being uprooted and taken to Inverness. If we are now considered part of Inverness why can't Highland Council at least have the decency to admit it? As the credit crunch bites into council funds and more cuts fall what else will be taken away from us? Maybe it really is time to start the Nairnshire Independence Party?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or! Moray and Nairn Again ?

Nairnac said...

fit ! - we micht a' end up spikkin like thon rapper chiel