Three care homes and a day centre in North Wales are under risk of closure after the authority approved £5.4 million worth of budget cuts. In a bid to save around £700,000, Dolwen, Cysgody Gaer and Awelon care homes look to be the ones that will be affected, with a total of fifty four residents living in them and ninety six staff. Also at risk is the Hafan Deg day centre which gets ten visits each day with a total of ten members of staff.
It has been reported that in order to keep these establishments open, the council would have to make around £17 million in the next two years, but it would be a struggle to do so. One of the other issues is the residents well being, which the head of adult and business services, Phil Gilroy, has made a priority. He advised delays would not be beneficial to the matter and that the residents will need to be assessed and moved to other types of care such as elderly mental health and nursing care if necessary.
Gilroy also said that there are external services which cater for 450 people, so this needs to be taken into account. Another bid to save £300,000 a year, is to look at moving the extra care housing to outside parties.
However, despite the questionable future of many, the council have stressed that redundancies will be a last resort. A spokeswoman advised that the council will not close down any of its council owned care homes if certain residents cannot be taken care of in alternative matters.
The Denbighshire council chiefs have also added that if they cannot find suitable places for the residents to stay, then they will not close down the care homes.
