GMB call on Four Seasons Health Care to explain care home closure decision
GMB call on Four Seasons Health Care to explain decision to close care home in Walthamstow as 45 residents are forced to relocate
Decisions like this, that affect the lives of both residents and staff, must be made with the utmost transparency, or else we are left to assume the companies involved have something to hide, says GMB London
GMB, the union for care home staff, have called on Four Seasons Health Care to explain their decision to close the Ross Wyld Care Home in Walthamstow.
Ross Wyld Care Home have informed the residents that they will need to be relocated, as they have been unable to agree a renewal of the lease with the freeholder. This is despite no pre-application or formal application for planning permission or change of use on that site being received by the London Borough of Waltham Forest Planning Department.
21 of Ross Wyld’s residents were placed there by the London Borough of Waltham Forest, yet the local authority only discovered the decision to close down the home when a next of kin for a resident contacted their Adult Social Care team following the announcement.
The Telegraph recently reported that Four Seasons Health Care is currently dependent on £30m in emergency funding agreed by US hedge fund H/2 Capital, which owns most of Four Seasons’ £525m bond debt. [See notes to editors for Telegraph article]
Ross Wyld Care Home received an overall rating of “requires improvement” following a Care Quality Commission inspection report published in February 2018. [See notes to editors for CQC report]
Anna Meyer, GMB Regional Officer said:
“The decision by Four Seasons Health Care to close the Ross Wyld Care Home has been made with a lot of secrecy. We requested information from the Care Service Director at Four Seasons Health Care, however they have claimed they were not involved in the negotiating process for the extension of the lease.
“If it is a financial decision, which seems likely following the recent article in The Telegraph, then we could understand that their hand is being forced. However, they have refused to admit whether this is the case, and has left some of London’s most vulnerable people without a home, staff without a job, and no explanation as to why.
“We have spoken to Waltham Forest Borough Council who placed 21 of Ross Wyld’s residents, and they have not been told anything either.
“Decisions like this, that affect the lives of both residents and staff, must be made with the utmost transparency, or else we are left to assume the companies involved have something to hide.”
Michael Ainsley, GMB Regional Officer said:
“Homes are closing all over the country for financial reasons putting an intolerable strain on carers local authorities and residents.
“The government must end austerity and give back dignity and care to our elderly who after all are the very people who made this country great in the first place.”
ENDS
Contact: Anna Meyer 07974 251 808 or Mick Ainsley 07974 250 947 or GMB London Press Office 07970 114 762
Notes to Editors
1] The Telegraph article
Four Seasons reprieve averts funding crisis at care homes (14 April 2018)
2] Care Quality Commission inspection report – Ross Wyld Care Home (8 February 2018)
http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/new_reports/INS2-4331884783.pdf
