Rooke announcement to set out ‘one of the most significant’ investments in Gib’s elderly care 

The Gibraltar Government is expected to make “a detailed announcement” on the future of the Rooke building on Tuesday, adding it will represent “one of the most significant investments in elderly care that Gibraltar has ever made”. 

The announcement will be made at a press conference scheduled for late Tuesday afternoon by the Minister for Health, Care and Business, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, accompanied by the Director General of the Gibraltar Health Authority, Dr Paul Bosio. 

Ahead of the announcement, meetings “diarised for some time” will be held with residents and their families, with staff and with the relevant trade unions.  

“Those meetings will take place ahead of the public announcement, so that the people most directly affected hear the detail first,” No.6 Convent Place said in a statement. 

“Residents, their families and our staff will hear directly from the GHA Director General and I before anyone else, because that is the right order in which to do this, and it is why those meetings were arranged well in advance,” Mrs Arias-Vasquez added. 

The Government flagged the announcement on Friday after the Chronicle published an interview with GSD MP Atrish Sanchez in which she underlined longstanding Opposition concerns about the future of the Rooke building. 

The GSD has repeatedly raised concerns over the delay to the new elderly residential care facility at the former Rooke site, which had originally been expected to be completed by summer 2023.  

Ms Sanchez, the Shadow Minister for Care, said the delay was significant and questioned whether the project’s cost, believed to be around £38 million, had increased substantially.  

She also criticised what she described as a lack of clarity over how the Rooke facility would eventually operate, adding that questions remained over whether plans for private ownership and management had changed, who would provide care at the home and how it would be funded.  

Ms Sanchez also asked how this would impact residents at Mount Alvernia, who had been told by the Government they would not be obliged to move against their wishes.  

Last January, Mrs Arias-Vasquez told Parliament that 57 out of 120 residents of Mount Alvernia at the time had expressed interest in moving to the Rooke facility.  

The Chronicle interview was conducted earlier this summer and published late last week, with the Government pointing out that by the time of publication it had already convened the media for today’s announcement.