Jan 14 - Opposition Has Their Facts Wrong – Says Government On Vulnerable Person Case
The Government maintains that the Opposition have again got their facts wrong over the case of the vulnerable person that they highlighted last week.
No 6 insists that the Opposition continues to raise the risk of accidentally identifying this vulnerable person to the public. A statement goes on to say that this is typical of the GSD’s behaviour, as they frequently ask for personal information in Parliament ‘showing that they care less about vulnerable people than they do about trying to score political points’.
The GSD are aware that the Government cannot release full details as it is bound by confidentiality with the person and family. The Government insists that despite the GSD’s original claim, the family of the vulnerable person has not taken any personal legal action.
The Minister for Health Dr John Cortes is said to have taken a personal interest in the case, having been in close contact with the family. A main concern of theirs was that the person’s release from prison should be to KGV and not back to the community, where the person had been living alone prior to the arrest, so that the person would be looked after.
No.6 say that at no time was the person in question so disturbed that urgent admission to KGV was required and nothing further could be done by the Government until the Court granted bail. ‘It then fell to the defence lawyer to request bail, which the lawyer who took the case, Mr Eric Ellul, did in December, and care was accepted by the Mental Health team at KGV. All the work in the preceding weeks and months therefore delivered the desired result. A few days later the Minister for Health personally visited the patient at KGV.’
The Government claims that the Opposition is simply demonstrating it complete lack of understanding of the system. ‘Mrs Ellul-Hammond is intent on criticising Social Services for not being involved in this individual’s case, simply put, this is not appropriate at present. Never has a Social Worker or a Care Worker visited someone in prison in these circumstances. This is a situation where the lead is taken by the Mental Health Services not Social Services: the latter have been involved at a multi-disciplinary level and were aware of the case and will of course will become involved at the appropriate time that the need arises.’
