Madam,

In the 13 July edition of the Cambrian News, people were being encouraged to participate in the consultation about Bodlondeb care home in Penparcau.

It was stated by a Cabinet member that “after a great deal of effort to secure the future of Bodlondeb, it’s important for people to have their say”. The effort to secure the future of the home was to try to “off-load” it to another authority. Yes it is important for people to have their say and as part of the process it is equally important for Ceredigion County Council to listen and respond accordingly.

In a letter in the same edition we were informed by Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn that there are “around” 46 empty beds in Ceredigion local authority homes, which is financially unsustainable. How many residential beds are currently being funded by the county council in residential homes or residential beds in nursing homes?

We are also advised that Ceredigion clients prefer to receive care at home. Contrary to popular opinion about elderly care, the vast majority have always been cared for at home, which is why we have an army of informal and unpaid carers who are saving the government and local authorities billions of pounds. This is not something confined to Ceredigion.

The needs of the elderly remain as they always have; a need to be cared for, loved and respected, and all strategic developments should be based around those values. We entrust these responsibilities to our democratically elected leaders who incidentally are accountable to us, the electorate.

Further, in your 10 August edition, empty beds were now being referred to as “voids” which apparently the county council is trying to fill. We are told that they “aren’t turning people away”. One hopes not, as this would not be in the spirit of the Social Services and WellBeing Act 2014.

We are then told “they have to meet our eligibility criteria”. This use of technical terms seems to be a smoke screen. My understanding is that the eligibility criteria in the Welsh Act is not as generous as the English Care Act, however if these criteria are preventing the elderly from getting the care they need, then something should be done about it.

Furthermore, a reduction in the numbers of residents in the homes leads to the loss of experienced, competent and valuable members of staff, affecting the morale of all those involved. This outcome probably leads to easier closure of establishments.

The most worrying development is the idea that the county council should be able to employ registered nurses so that council-run residential homes can utilise nursing beds - this seemingly solving all the problems. Perish the thought. Who would want to give responsibility for running nursing beds to an organisation which does not want the residential beds it already has?

We should not be playing politics with our elderly population. There are so many questions that remain unanswered and now more than ever there needs to be transparency from the policy makers.

Yours etc,

K Davies, Lampeter Road, Tregaron.

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