New Petitions

The final new petition is PE590, from Mr Frank Harvey, on the licensing of nursing homes for the elderly. It relates to a newspaper article that he read about Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust moving a number of convalescent elderly patients from Aberdeen royal infirmary to a tower block of flats in the area. Although the petitioner calls for an investigation of the licensing and regulation of nursing homes for the elderly, he is particularly concerned about the situation in Aberdeen where patients have been moved to a refurbished block of flats to convalesce. Members are reminded that it would be inappropriate for us to become involved in that particular case.In any case, the Executive is clearly attempting to improve the standards and regulation of care services provided for the elderly through the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, which set up the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care to oversee those issues.The committee can agree to write to the Scottish Executive to seek its comments on the issues that are raised in the petition or we can conclude that the Commission for the Regulation of Care is already monitoring the situation and that there is therefore no cause for concern. It is a matter for us to decide what to do with the petition.The standards of care that are available to elderly people, whether it be in the new accommodation or inside the hospital, are a matter for the Commission for the Regulation of Care, which applies the standards in both those sets of circumstances. The petitioners concerns are therefore not well founded, as the commission would intervene if the standards were not up to scratch. I suggest that we write to the petitioner to explain that. Is that agreed?

The petitioner can come back to us.

If anything happens at a later stage, the petitioner may submit a new petition.Do members agree to the suggested course of action?Members indicated agreement.