Relatives of residents at Sóltún intend to sue the Icelandic state over construction work at the nursing home. The CEO of Sóltún says she understands the concerns, but that an emergency situation exists in Iceland due to a shortage of places.
A group of relatives at Sóltún intend to sue the Icelandic state over construction work at the nursing home. The relatives believe that the construction constitutes a violation of the residents’ human rights. This is stated by Einar Stefánsson, whose wife, Bryndís Þórðardóttir, has Alzheimer’s disease and has lived at Sóltún for three years.
The operation of Sóltún is based on a contract with the Icelandic state through Sjúkratryggingar Íslands (Icelandic Health Insurance), while the operation itself is privately owned.
The construction work at Sóltún is expected to take two years. Einar’s wife lives on the top floor of the building. Part of the project involves building an entirely new floor on top of the nursing home. Residents at Sóltún are to remain living in the building during the works.
“We want our people to be allowed to live in peace, to die in peace, and we do not want our people to live and die inside a construction site,” says Einar.
To have to live with the knowledge that these loved ones of ours, who do not have long left, will have to live – what remains of their lives – under such conditions; with demolition, noise, is both indifference and a lack of respect. Our people are being shown disrespect. Especially when one considers that the vast majority of those inside there will die under these conditions.
Einar wants the construction work to be halted.
Guðmundur Bergkvist
Halla Thoroddsen, CEO of Sóltún, says she understands this criticism from the relatives of residents at Sóltún. She says, however, that an emergency situation exists in Iceland due to a shortage of nursing home places and that more must be built.
Of course this will cause disruption and the construction will continue until August 2027. […] I understand these concerns among the group. There will be days when the patience of our people, relatives and residents will be tested. But we are pulling out all the stops to make this as tolerable as possible.
Halla says she is sorry to hear that the relatives intend to take the matter to court over the construction work.
Flóki Ásgeirsson, lawyer for the relatives at Sóltún, describes the core of the lawsuit.
…the case will be brought before the courts, where the legality will be tested. […] The position so far is that this violates the constitutionally protected human rights of the residents to respect for private and family life; the right to enjoy peace in their home, the nursing home, and to spend their final moments there with their loved ones without those moments being made, in reality, impossible by these construction works.
Flóki says that the lawsuit will be formally filed in February. He says that the Icelandic state will be sued in the case but that a decision has yet to be made on whether the lawsuit will also be directed at parties other than the state.
Source: Ruv.is
