The vice-president of the Living Care Association, responsible for managing the Lar da Bela Vista, in Funchal, admitted today that baths were given to users using kettles, but assured that all hygiene care is ensured.
In a parliamentary hearing at the Permanent Committee for Social Inclusion and Youth of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, requested by the PS, Andreia Teixeira stated that baths were provided to users using kettles, due to a boiler breakdown.
“We always use hot water,” he said, reinforcing that “there were never cold water baths.”
Questioned by journalists after the hearing, the person in charge indicated that the situation was resolved on Monday, after “a few months” of bathing using kettles.
Speaking to the deputies, Andreia Teixeira assured that “all care and hygiene are being ensured” to users, also highlighting that the institution has sufficient human resources to provide the necessary responses to the elderly in the home.
The Lar da Bela Vista, whose building is in a visible state of degradation, has been the target of several criticisms and public complaints related to alleged poor operating conditions and assistance to users, especially since management transferred from the public to the private sector in 2023.
When questioned by the deputies, Andreia Teixeira denied that there were delays in the meals of the users, although she admitted some “one-off failures”, as well as denying the complaints of expired medication, cited by the PS deputy Marta Freitas.
“I think it is a little unlikely considering that we are receiving medication every week,” he declared, stressing, on the other hand, that the home has already been complying “for a few months” with the ratio of employees allocated to the various floors”.
“We do not have a shortage of staff at the moment”, assured the vice-president of the Living Care Association, reinforcing: “At no time did users stop having activities, at no time did users stop having support”.
Andreia Teixeira also said that no complaints have been registered in the complaints book to date, indicating, however, that two complaints were made directly to the Madeira Social Security Institute.
After these statements, confronted by JPP deputy Miguel Ganança, the person in charge admitted that in January of this year the institution still did not have a complaints book and was waiting for it to be sent.
Andreia Teixeira also acknowledged that the building shows signs of degradation and pointed out that the management model imposed by the Madeira Social Security Institute “often does not help to make a better one or to apply a better model”.
According to the vice-president of Living Care, an application was submitted under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) to requalify the building, and if this is not feasible, due to the deadlines imposed by the RRP, “a plan B” will have to be found to carry out the requalification works, she indicated.
The Permanent Commission for Social Inclusion and Youth will also hear from the outgoing administrator of Lar da Bela Vista, Tony Saramago, the regional secretary for Inclusion and Youth, Ana Sousa and the president of the Madeira Social Security Institute, Micaela Freitas.
Lar da Bela Vista, located in the east of Funchal, was built in the 1970s to be a hotel, but it never operated as such and ended up being adapted to become a publicly managed nursing home.
In July 2023, the Regional Government transferred the property and its management to the Living Care Association.