Families have expressed their shock and fears at the prospect of having to rehome elderly relatives after a Wirral care home was issued with a notice of potential closure.
Residents at Homecrest Care Centre in Seacombe face being left with no accommodation after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) indicated it would remove the operator’s licence to provide a care service following an alleged failure to turn its fortunes around after a damning inspection in 2021.
Families of the 19 residents on site have spoken of their horror at the possibility of having to uproot vulnerable relatives while Homecrest executives claim they have been treated harshly.
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One relative told the ECHO that she fears her mother "may not survive" the move to another care facility. An inspection into the Wallasey home in October last year deemed Homecrest to be inadequate overall, owing to “serious concerns with the management of risk, care planning and delivery, the management of medicines, staff recruitment, staffing levels and service management” according to a report published by the CQC.
Ricki Bibi, operations director at Homecrest, told the ECHO the home had taken on board the findings and submitted a full response in January this year. She said: “It’s like a different home, the culture that has been created here now is that the manager will lead it.
"We found a new manager to come in and deliver this work. Every single area was addressed in our response and plans were laid out.
"We were turning it around and did everything they asked of us.” Despite this, Ms Bibi said she received an email on May 30, four months later, with notice of the decision to remove Homecrest’s registration as a care provider.
The operations director said this circumvented the usual channels of communication established between the home and CQC, meaning the email was missed and subsequently an opportunity to appeal the decision within a 28-day time frame was not taken. She said: “I’ve never missed a deadline, we had legal representation in place and usually all correspondence goes there.
"We’ve now got a new manager in place that they wanted, who is heavily pregnant and potentially faces being out of a job. Can you imagine how we felt? We’re actively looking after these people and it’s a real heartache after everything we’ve put into it.
“We’ve just been told to find new homes for the residents.” As a result of the missed deadline, Ms Bibi said the home’s registration was cancelled on June 28.
Families impacted by their decision told the ECHO they couldn’t believe what had happened. Chris Thomas’ father, Alan, 93, has been at Homecrest for a year.
She said: “My father seems very happy and I did worry how he would accept moving into care but he wasn’t doing well on his own. It seems so stupid to close the home when they’d made all the changes.
“My dad had been well presented and had no complaints about the home. He’d let me know if he wasn’t happy, and now I’ve got to explain to him that we have to pack up.
“I’ve been down this road with my mum and it’s going to be difficult for him. All the home wanted was an assessment and it’s not fair on the staff and the residents who will be scattered to all four corners.”
Sharon Shacklady of Wallasey said her mother, Pam Jones, 91, has received care at Homecrest and described the decision to close the home as “grossly unfair.” She said: “I was very surprised, I know they had problems but they’ve turned a corner as far as I’m concerned.
“The staff have done everything to make my mother as comfortable as possible, she can’t communicate properly but the nurses have been great in getting to know her and understanding what she needs. I don’t want to have to take her to another home as I worry she may not survive it.”
“The care has been faultless, it’s grossly unfair.”
A spokesperson for the CQC said: “CQC served a notice of decision on 30 May to remove the location of Homecrest Care Centre in Wallasey, Merseyside from Norens Limited’s registration.
“All CQC’s action is open to appeal to the Care Standards Tribunal and the provider had until 28 June to make this appeal. The provider did not submit an appeal within this timeframe.
“An appeal has subsequently been lodged with the Tribunal out of time. “
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