Concerns as care home repairs take over six weeks

An unsightly cordon has been in place in the home's front room

Concerns have been raised about the state of a residential home's living room after it has been left cordoned off for repairs for more than six weeks.

The work on front room windows is being carried out at Thie Milan residential home in Douglas, which is maintained by the Department of Infrastructure.

Frances Tinkler, who's 29-year-old daughter Elizabeth is among the residents, said they "shouldn't have to get used to part of their living room being cordoned off like an accident site".

A DOI spokesman said the repairs had "taken longer than anticipated due to the building being located in a conservation area".

Ms Tinkler's daughter has Down's Syndrome and autism and has lived in the home for five years.

"She is incredibly independent and able in so many ways, but needs quite a bit of support in other ways," she said.

She said the living room was like a "building site" and it sent a message that the residents were "less worthy, or it is less important than it would be in a private home".

Elizabeth and Frances Tinkler are hoping for swift action

She continued: "Parents in a home would have that work remediated fairly quickly, but this just seems to be put on the back burner, you shouldn't have to jump through a million hoops for something to be repaired."

Her concerns came following the publication of an independent review which found some residential homes had been "poorly maintained" and there were cases in which "inappropriate workarounds" had become the norm.

The Department of Infrastructure said new windows would be installed by the end of the week

Ms Tinkler is also a director of local learning disability charity Manx Mencap.

The home, which is owned by the Department for Health and Social Care, is run by Manx Care and has one member of staff responsible for the residents at a time, who Ms Tinkler said had been chasing up the situation with the government.

She said the cordon had meant her daughter had been going up to her room earlier as the residents were "squashed" in their communal area.

"These are people who like structure, who like things in the right place, who are organised, so chaos does not go down well," she said.

"If it is dangerous, then residents should not be in that room, a bit of cordon is not going to stop them from going in that area."

The DOI spokesman said the department had been working with an engineer at Thie Milan.

The team had been liaising with the building conservation officer to ensure the proposed works were "sympathetic to the character of the area", he said.

They expect to install new windows by the end of the week while masonry repairs would be completed by mid-August, the spokesman added.