Community Care : Cpl William Blackburn

EDM number 1186 in 1989-90, proposed by Mildred Gordon on 26/06/1990.

That this House deplores the fact that 28 years old Corporal William Blackburn, who was sadly paralysed from the neck down in a rugby accident and has made valiant efforts to rehabilitate himself, including winning medals in the Disabled Games in New York, and for whom a specially adapted flat has been available in Tower Hamlets since May 1989, is still occupying a much needed bed in a military hospital, after having been given three separate dates for his return to the community by Tower Hamlets Social Services, all of which have failed to be met because the money was not available for his care in the community, despite the fact that care in an institution would be even more costly and totally unsuitable for a young man; notes that there are at least four more cases of a similar nature in Tower Hamlets; and demands that funds be made available so that care in the community can become a reality for severely disabled people and not a pipe-dream and that these funds be ringfenced.

This motion has been signed by a total of 25 MPs.