WA fury at plan to move dementia patients

Liberal MP Sue Walker will contact the Prime Minister John Howard about the plight of 36 dementia patients being forced out of their Nedlands nursing home.

She said she was not satisfied the private company that owned the site could not build new accommodation elsewhere on the site before it demolished the Warrina building, where the dementia patients live.

“There has to be more than the economy. We have to look after our frail and elderly,” she said.

At the same time, former Labor Federal Health Minister Carmen Lawrence also complained about the treatment of patients who are being moved to make way for the redevelopment of Hollywood Village.

She said the government seemed to be washing its hands of responsibility for the elderly by allowing a big shift towards profit-making companies running aged care facilities.

“It now seems to be left largely to the market,” she said. “That is a very significant change in interpretation since I was minister.”

Dr Lawrence said she would raise questions in Federal Parliament about the redevelopment and whether the company, Retirement Care Australia, had complied with all the requirements of the aged care legislation.

She criticised the company’s suggestion that moving the dementia patients was the least disruptive way to redevelop the site.

Frank Schaper, chief executive of the Alzheimers Association, said: “I am appalled by the fact that they have chosen those 36 as the group to move…they are the most vulnerable. Dementia is an alarming problem. We have already reached epidemic proportions.”