Lords To Rule On Care Home Eviction

A company trying to evict an 83-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer from a private care home it runs is facing a legal battle in a historic case that could affect hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.

{mosimage}The patient, who is female and known as YL, is taking Southern Cross Health Care to the House of Lords today on the grounds that the eviction would breach her human rights. Southern Cross is arguing that it is not undertaking a public function. Doctors say that evicting her would lead to a 25% chance that she may die within 6 to 8 weeks. If she wins, it could provide protection to 300,000 care home residents potentially at the mercy of private firms who run 91% of care homes in England and Wales.

Her action is being backed by Lord Falconer, the secretary for constitutional affairs, and by disability and human rights campaigners. Due to a legal loophole, the Human Rights Act offers no protection to elderly people in private care homes who may be at risk of eviction, abuse or neglect.

The care home, which has been looking after YL since she was placed there by Birmingham city council in January 2006, wants to evict her because of an alleged “irreconcilable breakdown” between her family and its management. It accepts its relationship with YL has not broken down. An interim order preventing her eviction was granted last year.

YL’s lawyer, Yogi Amin, of Irwin Mitchell solicitors, said: “Care home owners are undertaking a public function in providing accommodation and caring for some of the most vulnerable people in society. They need to accept the responsibility that goes with it. That responsibility is simply to act reasonably and proportionately.”

A report by Help the Aged charity, which has been lobbying for a change in the law , identified a culture of care for older people in which poor conditions and inadequate care put their lives and dignity at risk.