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The Law Lords will decide whether private care homes can exercise a public function
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The Law Lords are giving judgment today on a bid to bring the protection of human rights laws to elderly people living in private care homes.
Six months ago, the Court of Appeal rejected the argument that a private care home is exercising a public function when it looks after people referred to it by a local authority.
The appeal judges said they were bound by previous rulings that a private care home could not be ified as a public body.
Up to 300,000 other residents throughout the country could be affected by the case, which centres on an 83-year-old Alzheimer's patient threatened with eviction from a private care home.
Her legal team has sought a ruling from the House of Lords that she can stay in the home because to move her would violate her human right to family life.
The patient, identified only as YL, has lived at the care home since January last year when she was placed there by her local authority, Birmingham City Council.
The care home, which cannot be named for legal reasons, is run by Southern Cross Healthcare, a private sector provider of residential and nursing services, which wants to remove the woman because of disagreements with her relatives.
The Human Rights Act covers public authorities and those performing public functions.
The central issue in the case is whether the Act should apply to residents who have been placed in the care of private sector providers and are funded by local authorities under their statutory duties.
Southern Cross Healthcare and other private owners of care homes have argued that they are not undertaking a public function.
But the patient's solicitor, Yogi Amin, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: "Just because a care home is privately run, it should not ignore the fact that the resident has been placed there and paid for by a public authority.
"Care homes are undertaking a public function in providing accommodation and caring for some of the most vulnerable people in society. They need to accept the responsibility that goes with it. That responsibility is simply to act reasonably and proportionately."
Copyright Press Association 2007
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