GSD raises questions over Rooke care facility delay and future of Mount Alvernia residents 

GSD Shadow Minister for Care Atrish Sanchez has raised questions over the future of the Rooke elderly care facility, including its cost, management and whether Mount Alvernia residents will be expected to move there. 

Completion of the Rooke facility had been expected by summer 2023, but the project remains delayed, with the cost having reached around £38 million. 

Ms Sanchez said the development had originally been presented as an elderly residential care facility intended to help meet the needs of Gibraltar’s ageing population and had been linked publicly to Mount Alvernia and wider elderly care services. 

She said there was still a lack of clarity over the project’s final cost and how the facility would operate. 

Earlier this year, the Minister for Health, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, told Parliament that 57 individuals had expressed interest in the new elderly care facility planned at the former Rooke site and that no resident of Mount Alvernia or any elderly residential facility would be compelled to leave their home against their wishes. 

At the time of the expression of interest, there were around 120 residents at Mount Alvernia, and the new facility is expected to have more beds than the current number of Mount Alvernia residents. 

Ms Sanchez said some residents and family members had been in contact with her after also sending the letter to the Minister for Health. 

She said residents had told her that they had been told they would be moved to the Rooke, although no timeframe had been given. 

Mrs Sanchez said she had also heard that Cabinet had agreed the facility would come under Elderly Residential Services and that Mount Alvernia residents would move there. 

“I don't know where that leaves that whole thing that [Mrs Arias-Vasquez] said that no resident of Mount Alvernia will be forced to move, because there are residents of Mount Alvernia that don't want to move,” Ms Sanchez said. 

She said the Opposition had sought clarity from the Government over the arrangements but had not received it. 

“We asked them for clarity and they don't give us clarity,” she said. 

She added: “It's been so opaque. Nothing, they don't include us in anything.” 

Ms Sanchez also questioned the cost of the project and whether it has “rocketed”. 

She raised further questions about how the facility would be operated and whether its original plans for private ownership and management had changed. 

Mrs Sanchez added that the Government had initially presented the project as one that would be sold and run privately, but it has been suggested that this is no longer the case. 

She also questioned the role of the Gibraltar Savings Bank and the arrangements for funding the service. 

Mrs Sanchez said the uncertainty was creating frustration among residents and families, particularly over the prospect of moving elderly people from a facility where they are settled. 

“It's massive,” she said of the delay and cost of the Rooke project. 

“There’s a question of who is going to take over and do the caring,” 

Ms Sanchez said consultation with residents and their families was important before any decisions were made, and added that the GSD wanted to work with the Government on elderly care but that the lack of information made this difficult. 

“I'm very happy to collaborate with [the minister], we want the same thing,” she said. 

“But they don't show us anything. So, it's very difficult. We can collaborate we want the same thing.”