Apap Institute’s 30 residents to be transferred to state elderly healthcare
Ageing Dominican nuns, lack of vocations, and hefty cost to renovate 80-year-old nursing home in Santa Venera tests Order’s resources
The state healthcare system will accommodate 30 elderly residents from a religious order’s home for the elderly, the Apap Institute in Santa Venera.
The Maltese Catholic archdiocese said the Dominican Sisters were unable to continue running the home, as an ageing order, the lack of new vocations and the finances needed to renovate the 80-year-old building had been testing their resources.
The nurses will continue to provide care to the elderly until the end of the year.
The 30 elderly residents in the Apap Institute will be relocated in another old people’s home in Buġibba, but the Secretariat for Active Ageing informed residents and their relatives that they can still apply to be transferred to another residential home instead.
Apap Institute workers were provided with alternative employment in other nursing homes.
Although Apap Institute is not part of the homes for the elderly run by the Archdiocese, because it is directly run by the Dominican Order, the Archdiocese assisted in finding an alternative solution for senior residents.