A 93-year-old man who lives in the state’s care home is fighting back against “unacceptable” new rules that ban unaccompanied residents from leaving their wards after an elderly man went missing from the facility last month.

Joseph Scerri has told the management of St Vincent de Paul Residence in a formal complaint that the new rules are “an encroachment on my personal liberty”.

He said the decision was depriving him of his freedom of movement and was rekindling “unhappy memories” of when all residents at the home for the elderly were locked up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The nurses’ union has dubbed the restriction “inhumane”.

“It seems [you are] trying to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut and applying a ‘one size fits all’ procedure. This is unacceptable to me as you are restricting my freedom,” Scerri told the management in his complaint against the blanket decision.

The decision was part of a raft of new measures which were meant to step up security after the disappearance of an 83-year-old man from the home for the elderly a fortnight ago and an apparent suicide attempt by another resident a few days later.

In a memo sent to all staff, senior management said that,  to “escalate security” in all open wards, residents are not to be allowed out of their wards, or even outside to smoke a cigarette, unless accompanied by a carer, a nurse or a relative.

The memo was issued following the disappearance of elderly resident Charlie Fino, who was last seen leaving St Vincent de Paul’s main gate at around 3am on June 28 and remains missing. 

While eight wards in the residence are considered as ‘closed wards’ since they house dementia patients, the other 28 are ‘open’, meaning, up until now, residents were able to enter and leave freely.

Scerri said he often left to do errands, sometimes travelling by taxi if relatives were not available. But, last week, he was informed that he could not go out anymore. He said that, although he understood that measures had to be taken to ensure that no other residents go missing, “they need to sort it out without limiting our freedom to move around”.

'New rules were causing havoc'

Although the nurses’ union blocked the new rules with directives to its members, its president, Paul Pace, said some staff are still imposing the restriction because the management warned that disciplinary action would be taken should there be any incidents resulting through negligence.

He said now the new rules were causing havoc, with smokers lighting up inside the wards.

Questions sent to the minister for active ageing remain unanswered by the time of writing.

In a previous response, the ministry said that the incident of the missing man had “challenged the concept of the open wards”.