News

UNISON is growing increasingly concerned at a trend of care home closures in Northern Ireland.

That concern has been heightened by Deloitte’s announcement yesterday that three care homes in the Care Circle Group – Braefield in Connor, Slemish in Ballymena and Kingsway in Dunmurry – have gone into administration.

This came after last week’s decision by Belfast Trusts to close Pine Lodge Residential Care Home and follows the closure of several care homes runs by Four Seasons in the last year.

With continuing pressure on NHS managers in England to both tighten their belts and privatise, the poor state of the pound and the uncertainties created by Brexit, it’s crunch time for the health service.

Although health is a devolved issue, the NHS is also suffering financially in Scotland, Wales and particularly Northern Ireland as a result of Westminster’s austerity policies.

A key difference between the devolved nations and England is that the latter falls under the Conservative government’s department of health – and at the sharp end of the cuts.