Decision based on spreadsheet

What kind of a society have we become when we are entrusting the care of our elderly relatives to the vagaries of a spreadsheet.

Why do we find it acceptable for care provision to be governed by profit and loss margins when there are numerous examples of excellently managed and run non-profit care providers whose sole focus is genuinely the care of the people in their homes.

In the past six years my mother has been forced to move three times through external circumstances.

Beaufort Court, where she lived happily for five years, withdrew residential wardens leaving approximately 100 residents feeling increasingly vulnerable following a whole catalogue of incompetent and mismanaged incidents.

My mother settled very happily into a flat at Marlborough House.

One year later, 28th July 2013, a fire and subsequent substantial water damage meant she was again forced to move. For three and a half years she was in a state of limbo, half expecting to be able to return to her flat.

However, time is not kind. She had resided contentedly at Leolyn for three years but during that period her health and mental capacity had diminished and at the point of reassessment, we had to make the painful decision that her care needs now exceeded those available at Marlborough House.

Her one wish was that she could remain at Leolyn where she felt safe and well cared for. We gave her every assurance that this would be the case.

On January 17, we were given the shocking news that this was not possible.

As a relative I feel that in the eyes of the company investors the residents and staff are expendable. These are people whose lives and livelihoods really matter, they are not to be determined by spreadsheets.

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