West Lothian care homes will remain open as health board backs council plan

West Lothian Council's three long-term placement care homes will remain open following an agreement by the West Lothian Integration Joint Board (IJB).The IJB is responsible for commissioning adult health and social care services and overseeing the delivery of these services in West Lothian.The IJB is facing a significant budget gap of £17.3 million caused by rising demand for services combined with insufficient levels of funding.In March the IJB agreed to review the options available that would achieve these financial savings.

Part of the IJB's review is to consider whether a larger percentage of service users could be placed into the growing number of independent care homes in West Lothian.However, in a move that aimed to prevent the need for long term placement care homes to close, last week West Lothian Council agreed to allocate the IJB with an additional one-off investment of £1.216 million.The funding was offered on the basis that it is used by the IJB to keep all of the council's long-term placement care homes open until at least March 2028 -0 which is the IJB's service planning period - thus safeguarding the long-term care to existing care home residents.At a meeting on Tuesaday, the IJB agreed to accept the council's offer and have agreed that there are no plans to close any of the long-term placement care homes.Limecroft, Whitdale and Burngrange are West Lothian's only council run homes offering long term care for 110 residents.A fourth care home site at Craigmair, in Livingston, will close to new admissions and has ultimately been earmarked for reopening as a community hospital to replace Tippethill near Armadale and the currently shuttered St Michael's Hospital in Linlithgow.Councillor Andrew McGuire, backed