[AUS]No beds for evictees

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No beds for evictees

No beds for evictees

THERE are not enough hospital and nursing home beds in Warrnambool to accommodate the city's Village Life residents who are facing eviction.

South-west health services are operating to capacity and will not be able to accommodate the 47 Warrnambool retirement village residents who face eviction because of a business dispute between property investor MFS Diversified Group

and Village Life.

Australian Medical Association Victorian president Mark Yates called for an immediate stay on the eviction of 150 Village Life residents across the state and urged the Federal and State governments to take action.

``This is a disaster,'' Dr Yates said.

``The situation is: some of the finest old people will be lying on park benches.''

He said the Warrnambool hospital should be very concerned about the possible influx of older people needing beds but noted there was a shortage of acute hospital beds.

Dr Yates said the pressure the Warrnambool hospital faced made it a State Government issue.

Low-level care or hostel care and social justice issues were the responsibility of the Federal Government.

It takes about eight weeks to place a single person in a hostel, he said.

Describing as ``inhumane'' the proposal by the finance company to evict frail people from their homes Dr Yates called for a stay on the eviction.

South West Healthcare and Lyndoch chiefs yesterday told The Standard they had not been approached to accommodate Village Life residents but both said they had no beds available.

``We operate at 97 per cent occupancy,'' South West Healthcare chief John Krygger said.

``We don't have a spare bed let alone 47.''

Lyndoch chief executive Rhys Boyle said some Village Life residents and families had approached the facility's aged care assessment team.

He said Lyndoch's nursing home and hostel had healthy waiting lists.

Mr Boyle said he could not see how the facility could meaningfully help Village Life residents because it had run at 99 per cent full for the past two years.

The contract dispute has led to more than 450 elderly residents across Australia facing eviction from their homes.

Residents at the Warrnambool home and those at three other Village Life Victorian retirement villages were told on Monday they faced eviction on May 28.

Consumer Affairs Victoria is investigating and has asked the companies involved not to act further at this time.

The dispute started in 2006 when MFS acquired 10 villages managed by Village Life.

Village Life sought to end management of the MFS-owned properties.

MFS Investments managing director Craig White on Tuesday placed the blame on Village Life. ``(Village Life's) conduct has forced this situation on us,'' Mr White said.

A spokeswoman for Village life claimed that MFS was to blame because the management agreement they had with the owners was too expensive and they could not continue to operate.

Source:The Standard