Older people have human rights too - Burstow

12.00.00am GMT Wed 11th Jan 2006

Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam, Paul Burstow, introduce a private Members Bill to close a legal loophole that denies older people in care homes basic human rights.

The Bill aims to:

1. extend the protection of the Human Rights Act (1998) to older people living in private sector care homes.

2. establish clear nutritional standards for all care services for older people, and

3. provide new legal protection to vulnerable older people at risk.

The Human Rights currently does not apply to privately run care homes as a result of a court decision.

Paul Burstow recently won the epolitix charity champion award for older people's champion.

Paul Burstow MP said in his speech in the Commons:

"The purpose of my Bill, first and foremost, is to safeguard vulnerable older people from abuse and neglect.

"Thanks to the way in which the courts have interpreted the meaning of "public authorities" under the Human Rights Act, when someone crosses the threshold of a privately run care home the writ of the Human Rights Act does not run. Quite simply there is a protection gap, and it is the old and the vulnerable who are falling through the gap.

"When older people are neglected or mistreated in a care home, when relatives are told they cannot visit because they ask awkward questions, when a married couple are told that, against their wishes, they cannot stay in the same care home and when an older person is evicted from a care home, it is rarely seen as a human rights issue, but often a case of poor practice or standards. Yes, of course standards matter, but first and foremost those are violations of a person's human rights."

On the issue of nutrition in care homes Paul Burstow said:

"It is a scandal that in the 21st century, elderly people in care are starving to death. One in 10 care home residents lose up to 5 per cent. of their body weight within a month of being admitted to a home and 10 per cent. of their body weight within six months of admission.

"The personal cost of such poor treatment is incalculable and unacceptable.

"Unlike the standards that are to be introduced in schools, the standards for care homes say next to nothing about nutrition. The Government have rightly decided to implement nutrient-based standards for school meals and it is time that they did the same for care homes. My Bill would put in place such nutrient standards."