Residents at a care home in Santa Venera that is shutting down will be offered a place in state-run care homes.

Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela told Times of Malta that Apap Institute residents will all be helped to source alternative accommodation, through his ministry’s active ageing secretariat.

Abela previously served as minister for active ageing, a responsibility now undertaken by Malcolm Paul Agius Galea as a parliamentary secretary.

The minister’s pledge seeks to reassure the 30 senior citizens who live at Dar Apap, a care home run by Dominican Sisters in Santa Venera.

Residents were informed this week that the care home will shut down in just three months. The Curia said the decision was taken due to the lack of new nuns and the high costs of refurbishment works.

Sources said that while some of those residents are to be relocated to other Church-run care homes, a significant portion of Dar Apap residents have yet to secure a new home.

All those affected will be offered an alternative, Abela’s ministry said.

Residents' concerns about finding a new home

While the Curia said it was helping residents find new homes, relatives of those residents told Times of Malta that was not true.

One said relatives were given a paper with the phone numbers of other care homes and asked to fill in a form.

“All they told us was that they would help ‘as far as they could’ but they did not give a guarantee,” one relative woman said.

Another added: “They gave us three months. This is not enough time to rehome a puppy, let alone an elderly person who has formed bonds with staff and other residents at the home.”