Gov't ignored plea - chairman
Published:Wednesday | April 20, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter
Chairman of the Golden Age Home's board of directors, Rion Hall, thinks the Government's favourable reception to recommendations for an improvement to the Golden Age Home is a tacit admission of culpability for the ills plaguing the institution.
Hall said some of the recommendations contained in the board's report on the findings of an investigation into the operations of the home were not new.
A six-member subcommittee drawn from the home's board penned the report.
Among the recommendations accepted by the Government is for the retrofitting of Cluster D, in particular the bathrooms, to accommodate the residents' special needs.
more staff needed
The Government has also accepted a recommendation to implement a new organisational review completed by the Management Development Division of Cabinet to deal with the lack of adequate staffing, in particular, the staff-to-resident ratio, where needed.
"There is some vindication to the board to the effect that the minister has accepted all the recommendations, some of which had come to their attention previously," Hall said.
The board chairman insisted that if the recommendations were accepted and acted upon earlier by the Government, some of the conditions at the home would have been in a better state.
"You shouldn't have seen some of the things you saw," he said.
A Sunday Gleaner exposé highlighted disturbing conditions in which congenitally disabled residents are housed.
two resignations
Meanwhile, the chairman revealed that he received two resignations in writing but did not know how many board members tendered their resignations directly to the minister.
However, Hall refused to reveal the names of the members who submitted the missives. "I couldn't do that to them," he said.
Robert Montague, state minister who has responsibility for local government, has refused the resignation of several board members in light of an investigation at the home.
In response to calls for the board to resign or be dismissed, Hall said he was still willing to walk away. "I have no objection to this feeling," he said.