While I support wholeheartedly the demonstration by the people who will be affected by the closure of the Wimbledon Guild Day Centre, and echo everything they say regarding this, knowledge that the Guild has taken the decision to close Rosemary Lodge Care Home at the end of the summer seems to have fallen by the wayside.
As well as the home closure, tenants in the cottages in the grounds of the home have also been served notice to leave.
I pick up on a comment in the article that Wimbledon Guild will be matching pound for pound the increase in funding from Merton Council - the sale of the home (which we need to note was gifted to the Wimbledon Guild) plus the cottages and the land they all stand on should net them quite a profit.
Since the announcement of the closure, the last few months have been very stressful for residents, their families and also the staff at Rosemary Lodge who have all been made redundant.
The people at the Wimbledon Guild who took this decision don’t see first-hand what we see on a daily basis.
For the staff and the residents all of this is very real, for the people at The Wimbledon Guild, it’s the way forward to ensure they have the funds in place for their new venture, which on paper sounds promising but has yet to prove itself.
We need to be mindful that there have been real "casualties" here at the care home not least the fact that residents still needing to be re-homed have become anxious and very unsettled.
Not good for people with dementia and other health issues.
During the consultancy period the staff put forward alternatives to the closure but at every turn were given reasons why these ideas wouldn’t work.
It all comes down to money at the end of the day and it would appear their minds were made up long before they gave us the news of the closure.
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- What do you think? Send your letter to letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk.
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