The Cospicua elderly home saga is not a case closed for the elderly, as the minister repsonsible had said, PN Spokesperson for Active Aging Paula Mifsud Bonnici said.
Speaking during the adjournment in Parliament on Monday, Mifsud Bonnici said that some of the elderly residents had not been accepted at any of the three selected homes they were offered as an alternative.
Last May Cospicua elderly home residents were in tears over eviction plans, with the government announcing just a few days earlier that there are plans to move the elderly people to other homes as it intended to carry out work on the premises.
Last month the Minister for Active aging Jo Etienne Abela was asked for a reaction on the issue, and his reply was that the matter was closed. “We’ve got a lot of projects”, he had said in response to a question posed by this newsroom.
The PN MP said that just by telling the elderly to move on does not mean that “they are not going to worry”.
She said that the government did not consult with the elderly but rather ‘advised’ them that they will be moving out for their own safety.
Mifsud Bonnici pointed out that if the government truly is one that listens, it should have taken their views into consideration, as the idea of moving an elderly person is already traumatic in itself.
Referring to an opinion piece which was published on The Malta Independent, Mifsud Bonnici said that this issue was also tackled by sociologist Michael Brigulio when speaking about the Cospicua home saga. Agreeing with what he wrote, she said that when it comes to the transferring of people they should not be treated as merchandise.
This was also the subject tackled in an email one of the nieces of the elderly who was being transferred from the Cospicua home sent to the PN MP.
“Elderly people have less rights than animals and we feel that our loved one is being treated like merchandise,” the niece wrote.
In an appeal, the MP said that she hopes that the government learns from the mistakes it did and does not repeat them “as the only ones suffering the consequences are the elderly”.
