Alan Perry, regional organiser for the GMB union, was talking after information emerged this week that The Mannequin Care House in Ballymoney, north Antrim, is because of shut.
That adopted what the Regulation and High quality Enchancment Authority (RQIA) mentioned had been “severe issues” about an “absence of assurances round its monetary preparations”.
As such, it had the house’s registration revoked – which means the residents now should be moved elsewhere.
The corporate Mannequin Group NI Restricted took management of the house a few year-and-a-half in the past, and the BBC quoted it as saying that its issues had been merely “administrative points” and that the RQIA’s actions had been “wholly unjustified”.
The house employs about 60 workers, of whom about half belong to the GMB union.
Mr Perry instructed the Information Letter that a number of the residents of The Mannequin had moved in there after The Courtroom, one other care residence in Ballymoney, had been ordered to shut final autumn.
A few of The Courtroom’s workers too managed to search out work at The Mannequin, solely to search out that it too is now shutting down.
“There’s just one different residence, technically, throughout the Ballymoney space,” he mentioned.
“Anyplace else the place there’s vacancies, the residents are going to must journey.
They’re going to have to maneuver outdoors the Ballymoney space. That creates it’s personal difficulties within the affect it has on them.
My understanding of it’s they [the other Ballymoney home] could possibly accommodate a pair, however not all 28 residents.
“There’s little doubt we’ll discover beds. The query will likely be – the place? That’s the problem.
“As a result of when The Courtroom closed seven months in the past, a number of the residents needed to transfer as far-off as Ballymena [about a 17-mile drive away] – and that brings extra prices to households who must go and go to their family members.”
The RQIA is presently concerned in taking enforcement motion in opposition to seven totally different our bodies, of which The Mannequin is only one.
These embody different houses and corporations in addition to Lakeview Hospital in Londonderry.
