Gwent Health Authority and the families of four vulnerable residents of the Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital have reached a compromise over the residents' future care.
The agreement is the culmination of 10 years of legal wrangling caused by the health authority's decision to close the long-stay unit and move the residents, who all have profound learning difficulties, into community-based care. Residents claimed this breached their human rights (News, page 15, 27 September, 2001).
At a High Court hearing last week, lawyers for the families said they would facilitate a feasibility study into the merits of the residents moving to a "village community". Under the agreement, the health authority would place them in such a community if it "reasonably meets their assessed needs" and if relatives agreed.
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