SNP candidate calls on Scottish Government to save specialist Edinburgh care home

An SNP candidate is calling on the Scottish Government to intervene to save a specialist Edinburgh care home from closure.

Braeside House care home is set to close by April

Catriona MacDonald, who is standing in Edinburgh Southern at the Holyrood elections in May, said Braeside House in Liberton,run by charity Sight Scotland, provided "exceptional" care for people with sight loss.

But the home, which has 31 residents, is set to close within three months due to "unsustainable financial losses".

Ms MacDonald said: “I am dismayed to learn that Sight Scotland is planning the closure of Braeside House, one of the only specialist care homes for elderly people with sight loss in Scotland.

"This has come as a real shock to residents and their families, particularly given the short notice and ongoing public health restrictions which will make finding alternative arrangements very difficult.

“Staff at Braeside provide exceptional specialist care for residents. This has been a source of great comfort for residents’ families during the pandemic when they could not be there for their loved ones. They are appalled to learn that those same staff now face potential redundancy.

“I have written to the Health Secretary to ask that the Scottish Government intervenes urgently to secure Braeside’s future and ensure residents are not left without the care they need and deserve during a global pandemic."

She said the care sector faced big challenges which had only been exacerbated by Covid and Brexit.

"Care is a vital public service. The pandemic has shown just how valuable the care sector is to our health and wellbeing as a society. That is why we need a National Care Service that guarantees free, accessible, high quality care for everyone who needs it.”

Sight Scotland told families and residents on Thursday last week that they propose to potentially close the home by April. The charity's second specialist care home in Paisley will also close.

Sight Scotland chief executive Mark O'Donnell has said the closures are due to an increasingly difficult financial environment caused, in part, by the coronavirus crisis. He said the charity had been forced to use reserves to keep the specialist facility going during the pandemic.

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