Care rules 'killed alcoholic'

AN ALCOHOLIC who died in a drinking den is the first victim of the Government's new community care bureaucracy, a drink recovery project leader claimed yesterday.

The body of Jeremiah Kearney, 48, was found slumped on a mattress surrounded by beer cans in a squat used by down-and-outs in Finsbury, north London, last month. A post-mortem examination found that he had died of heart failure.

Two weeks earlier he had tried to get into an alcohol recovery project - but was told that new community care arrangements meant he would have to be assessed by a local authority's social services department before he could be considered for a place.

Before 1 April, he would have been accepted immediately and the Department of Social Security would have paid the bill. Earlier this year, the Government told local authorities that people with drug and alcohol problems should be made a priority when carrying out assessments.

Mike Abell, manager of St Luke's treatment centre, in Kennington, south London, where Mr Kearney tried to get help, warned of more tragedies unless the Government changed the assessment procedure and allowed people to get help immediately. 'Jerry's death is tragic. He needed help immediately - but it wasn't there.'

Last night, Tim Yeo, an Under- Secretary of State for Health, said government social services inspectors would examine the case to see whether guidance had been followed.