NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 4th June 2003
NO NEED FOR LITIGATION BY CARE PROVIDERS IF REGULATORS PLAY FAIR
New regulations governing care homes may have proved more difficult to implement than originally anticipated because they were crafted by the Government but are having to be interpreted by the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC).
Chief executive officer of the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA), Frank Ursell, said today that it was not surprising that there were different views about how the regulations should be applied.
“The government, the regulators, lawyers and care providers themselves were always bound to see things differently,” he said.
Responding to a plea from NCSC adult services director Heather Wing not to let disagreements end up in the courts, Mr Ursell agreed that co-operation and collaboration were a better solution than litigation in most instances. But he warned that care providers would expect to see greater consistency within the NCSC in the future.
“Those responsible for providing care would naturally prefer to devote all their time, energy and resources to looking after the vulnerable people placed in their charge,” he said. “On that score, we are entirely at one with the Commission in the desire to focus on the needs of older people and others who need long-term residential care. However, that doesn’t mean we will simply accept every decision the regulators make, regardless of how unreasonable or unfair it may be.”
On the thorny issue of litigation, Mr Ursell said this should always be seen as an absolute last resort where care providers had exhausted all other possible avenues for redressing what they genuinely considered to be wrong decisions or serious bureaucratic mistakes by the regulators.
He concluded: “The Commission cannot expect care providers totally to abandon their legitimate recourse to the courts if they themselves feel abused by the system.
Equally, I am sure that the need for such action will greatly reduce if the Commission itself operates in a spirit of true partnership with the long term care sector.”
END
For further information and comment please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or 07785 227000 mobile
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