Health chief grilled over Elgin pilot to cut night-time care
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LOCAL campaigners are hopeful social care bosses will drop plans for a controversial pilot scheme in Elgin to cut night-time care for vulnerable residents.
Charles McKerron, interim integrated services manager at Health and Social Care Moray (HSCM), apologised for the "pain and angst" the proposal had created when he faced a grilling from angry relatives during a public meeting at The Laichmoray Hotel, on Friday, January 10.
Mr McKerron said the pilot was an opportunity to learn and test new care methods at a time when demand for care was outstripping the availability of carers.
The plan for the 12-week overnight responder pilot stalled in December after relatives took action against the proposal to gradually withdraw night-time "sleeping" staff and place just one office-based overnight responder on call for three Cornerstone-run homes, relying instead on "tried and tested" telecare sensors.
The relatives put across their unanimous opposition to the pilot. They fear it would put learning-disabled residents at Hay Street, Quebec Place and Teindland Court houses at risk at night times. They also raised objections to people being "used as guinea pigs" – and expressed fears over the future of supported accommodation.
The father of one resident, John Simon, from Elgin, said: "It beggars belief that you could even think of trying this on vulnerable people who do not yet know this is going on. It should never go ahead. If we don't get something saying it's not going ahead, we'll take legal action."
Anne Speake, secretary of the Elgin Enable branch, has co-ordinated the campaign alongside relatives Libby Mitchell and Jenny Angus, from Aberdeen, and Liz McKay, from Inverness. Moray Conservative MP Douglas Ross and councillors Tim Eagle (Buckie) and Claire Feaver (Forres) attended the latest meeting.
Mr Ross is urging Moray Council to end the uncertainty and abandon the plans quickly.
Mr McKerron said: "I recognise that this particular project has created a huge amount of public concern and a huge amount of parental pain and angst and for that I'm really sorry.
"This came from an ongoing process of looking at learning disability and how we manage our resources.
"We are absolutely committed to providing the right level of care and support for people with a learning disability in Moray and that includes overnight support. The question is how we manage that and how we deliver it.
"This proposal is about a pilot project from which we might actually learn something. We tried to set this project up so that this could happen – keeping people as safe as possible while we were doing the pilot.
"These are systems that have been tried and tested. I know they're not foolproof – no technology is – but actually people sleeping in people's houses isn't foolproof either."
He added: "The truth is that the data indicates that there is relatively low levels of night-time disturbance so we have to make sure that we're using our resources in the most effective way. This was an opportunity to test out whether this could be effective or not.
"But we may not be able to move forward with this opportunity."
However, Mr McKerron warned: "Unless we begin to think a little bit differently and more creatively on how we support people then we're going to be struggling in the future."
Mr Ross said: "It’s disappointing that there had been so little communication between the council and the vulnerable adults affected or their families before the plans were made public and we now have a real breakdown of trust, which has to be addressed as a matter of priority."
The Moray Integrated Joint Board (MIJB) had approved the pilot in August last year after HSCM said the availability of care staff was an issue in Moray and the existing model of sleepover support was unsustainable. Mr McKerron said he would feed back on the concerns and opposition to the HSCM management and they would consider how to proceed.
Related article: Families unite against night-time plan at Cornerstone-run homes
Related article: Health chiefs stall on Cornerstone plan
