Madam,

A report to the Cabinet of the county council presented by the Director of Social Services, Carys James, on 19 of June, regarding independent care home fees for the coming financial year makes for puzzling reading in the light of the decision to close Bodlondeb Residential Home.

Page two of the 18-page document advises that: “Although the national focus is to maintain more people in their own homes for longer this may not have an immediate effect on [sic] number of residential placements because of the underlying demographic of an ageing population”.

The report goes on to freely admit that, with regard to residential and nursing home placements, the county council acknowledges: “..actual average occupancy levels exceeding 95 per cent in both sectors”.

Based on the county council’s own figures, Ceredigion is facing a situation where, if care home places are unchanged, by 2020 even an extra one per cent of the over-85 population of the county, equivalent to around 33 people, requiring nursing or residential care, will exhaust the provision of care beds in Ceredigion.

It seems reasonable to conclude, in the circumstances, that social services and the county council were in possession of the fact that the projected population increase in the most elderly age group will outstrip the provision of care home placement in Ceredigion in 18 months’ time, but still saw fit to close Bodlondeb.

One can only guess at the logic behind this.

Yours etc,

Mark Williams, chair of North Ceredigion Forum for Older People’s Care.

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page