Rooke Elderly Care Facility To Open Later This Year
The Government says the Rooke building has been completed and will be run by the GHA as a new elderly care facility, with 170 en-suite rooms and space for 218 residents.
All Mount Alvernia residents will be offered a place, while long-stay patients at St Bernard’s will also move into the new facility. Public open days will take place on 7th, 8th and 9th September before it opens later this year.
A statement from the Government follows below:
Rooke complete and will be acquired and run by the GHA, providing 170 en-suite rooms and a capacity of 218 residents
• All Mount Alvernia residents will be offered a place at the Rooke
• Long stay patients at St Bernard's Hospital awaiting ERS will be transferred to fit for purpose residential setting
• Rooke expected to be operational later this year, with public open days on 7th, 8th and 9th September
The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, has announced that the Rooke building has now been completed and will be acquired by the Gibraltar Health Authority, to be run as an elderly care facility. The facility is expected to be operational later this year.
Staff at Mount Alvernia were briefed on the plan this morning and were invited to visit the building this afternoon. Minister Arias-Vasquez and the GHA Director General met Unite the Union and the GGCA at the Ministry earlier today and also met this afternoon with the families of Mount Alvernia residents. The Minister has been meeting those families over a sustained period and they have consistently expressed the wish for their relatives to move to the Rooke. Their views have informed the approach the Ministry and the GHA will now take.
The Rooke provides a capacity of 218 residents, significantly more than the capacity of 130 at Mount Alvernia. That additional capacity is what allows the Government to address, for the first time, the long-standing position of long stay patients at St Bernard's Hospital awaiting transfer to Elderly Residential Services. Those patients will now be able to move to the Rooke, which is a fit for purpose elderly residential and nursing facility and not a hospital.
Residents of Cochrane Ward will also move to the Rooke. Cochrane is an Elderly Residential Services ward located within St Bernard's Hospital, which means that residents who require residential rather than acute care are currently being cared for on a hospital ward. Their move to the Rooke brings that arrangement to an end and returns further capacity to the hospital.
Minister Arias-Vasquez was not involved in the construction of the building, which was delivered separately by a private entity, but the GHA will now assume responsibility for the building as an asset purchased and run by the GHA.
Residents of Mount Alvernia will be offered places at the Rooke which has been purpose-built to a modern, state-of-the-art standard and designed from the outset for elderly residential care rather than adapted from another use. The building is also centrally located, within easy reach of the town and of the services, shops and places that residents and their families use every day, which will make visiting easier and more frequent than is possible today. The process will be handled individually, sensitively and at the pace that suits each resident and their family.
The Rooke has been built to a high specification throughout. Every room has an en-suite bathroom, natural daylight, a balcony and modern facilities including a television and WiFi. The building has hotel-grade kitchen and laundry facilities, residents' dining rooms and activity areas on each floor and large communal indoor and outdoor areas for leisure activities and exercise.
The Rooke will provide permanent residential care. Respite care will continue to be provided through existing arrangements.
The public will be able to visit the Rooke on the following days. No appointment is necessary and GHA and Ministry staff will be on hand throughout to answer any questions.
1. Monday 7th September between 18:00hrs and 20:00hrs
2. Tuesday 8th September between 12:00hrs and 14:00hrs
3. Wednesday 9th September between 09:00hrs and 11:00hrs.
A GHA public meeting will also be held at the Rooke on Tuesday 8th September at 18:00hrs, at which the Director General of the Gibraltar Health Authority will give a presentation on the facility and take questions from the public.
Minister Arias-Vasquez wishes to give a clear public assurance to all current Mount Alvernia staff that their jobs are secure and will not be affected in any way. Staff will continue to be employed by the GHA, and their terms and conditions will remain unchanged. There will be no change to pay, grading or pension arrangements as a result of this acquisition.
A more detailed statement on the financing arrangements for the acquisition of the Rooke will be made later this month. This represents a significant investment in elderly care in Gibraltar and one which the Government is proud to make.
The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, said:
"The completion of the Rooke gives us the opportunity to transform the way we deliver elderly care in Gibraltar. The Rooke gives us 170 modern, purpose-built rooms. That is more capacity than Mount Alvernia has residents, and it is what finally allows us to move long stay patients out of St Bernard's Hospital and into a setting designed for residential care. It will be run by the GHA to the same standards of care our community expects and deserves. I have met the families of Mount Alvernia residents over many months, and they have been clear that this is what they want for their loved ones. I also want to be absolutely clear with our staff at Mount Alvernia that their jobs are secure, they will remain employed by the GHA, and nothing about their employment changes. This building now belongs to the people of Gibraltar, and I want people to see it for themselves before a single resident moves in. That is why we are opening it to the public next week, and why the GHA will hold a public meeting there on the 8th September. This is a significant investment, and it is one this Government is proud to make."
