East Lothian Courier | News | Nursing home crisis

Published: Thursday, 18th October, 2007 09:00

Nursing home crisis

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A COMMUNITY has united in defence of an under-threat nursing home – despite an official report criticising its standards of health care, nutrition and food hygiene.

Cockenzie House Nursing Home, which has 54 residents and employs 80 staff, is fighting for survival following the decision by East Lothian Council not to renew its contract, which sees its 70 beds used for respite and emergency care, delayed hospital discharges and long-stay purposes.

Earlier this year, an investigation by the Care Commission into operating standards at Cockenzie House led to owner Jim McDonald being ordered to undertake extensive modernisation works or face being shut down.

Mr McDonald, whose case is supported by local doctors, MSPs and an action group, warns that the cost of modernising the historic 18th century mansion, coupled with the loss of the council contract, will make his business “unviable.”

The Care Commission’s investigation concluded that the nursing home was “not operating in accordance with requirements or conditions imposed by or under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, or the requirements of Regulations made under the Act”.

In a letter to Mr McDonald, it warned that unless there was “a significant improvement” in standards it intended to cancel his registration.

Mr McDonald has strongly denied the claims.

And GPs at nearby Harbours Medical Practice, who provide medical care to the home, have backed the owner – and launched a stinging attack on the council and Care Commission.

“I refute these findings completely,” said Mr McDonald, who described himself as a “private operator running a public service on behalf of the council”.

He added: “The Care Commission received a malicious complaint from a member of staff we had sacked for misconduct and they came in here like stormtroopers. It is a mountain out of a molehill.“

Alarm bells began ringing when Jan Cochran, the council’s head of adult social care services, informed him of the decision not to renew the contract.

Said Mr McDonald: “There is a very great threat to the future of the home. We are being forced into a precarious cash flow situation.

“If we lose this contract we will have no security of funding. And, faced with having to modernise to satisfy the care commission, the operation will not be viable.

“I would never dream of charging top-up payments to residents and their families. Nor do I wish to take on cheap foreign labour. I value the loyalty of my staff, the majority of whom are local and have been with me for many years.”

Mr McDonald’s position has won the backing of doctors at nearby Harbours Medical Practice. GPs Donald Bremner, Susan Menzies, Jon Turvill, Susan Cramond, Susan Liddell, Peter Churnand Robbie George have written an open letter to local councillors and the council.

It protests about the planned withdrawal of the council contract on November 17, warns of dire consequences for care provision in East Lothian and attacks the Care Commission’s report into Cockenzie House as “breathtaking in its insensitivity and incompetence”.

They declared: “We believe that the management, nurses and carers are diligent, highly competent, and caring. The service to residents and their relatives is excellent, as good as any nursing home in East Lothian, and better than most. We have excellent working relationships with them...

“We are aware that Jan Cochran’s view is that a proposed new wing does not form part of the council’s strategic plan for future care provision. Without this new wing, the existing home will be non-viable in two years, when the Care Commission will insist on single occupancy rooms only.

“East Lothian will then lose its largest and most useful nursing home. None of the residents of Cockenzie House could be cared for at home, as envisaged by the strategic plan-this is pure fantasy”

The doctors went on: “Those conducting the (Care Commission) inspection had little or no understanding or experience of what they were commenting upon, but were prepared to ride roughshod over the feelings of staff. They failed to find any significant deficiencies in care.

“In the aftermath of this, the social work department has overreacted by producing screeds of mostly unhelpful reports to compensate for their lack of supervision over the past three years.”

The doctors have urged the council to extend the contract and to “overrule officials who appear poised to make a disastrous blunder”.

There is a severe problem in the county with delayed discharges from hospital and the potential loss of Cockenzie House would be disastrous, they say.

Port Seton octogenarian Don Sowden has reacted to the crisis by planning a one-man protest at Tuesday night’s meeting of the full council in Haddington. His wife Dorothy, 82, has been a resident of Cockenzie House for two years.

“The way she is looked after is absolutely first class,” said Mr Sowden, 80, of Links Road.

County MSP Iain Gray, who attended a meeting of the Cockenzie House Action Group last week with fellow Holyrood MSP Christine Grahame, is also calling for a contract extension to allow more time for a solution to be reached.

“The important thing is that 54 residents and their families are extremely concerned about what will happen when the current contract runs out,” he said.

Nursing home chaplain and action group chairman, the Rev Robert Glover, minister at Chalmers Memorial Church, criticised Preston/Seton/Gosford councillors Stuart Currie and Peter MacKenzie for failing to get involved in the protest campaign. Neither were available for comment.

Mr Glover claimed: “At recent meetings arranged to mobilise support, local councillors from the ruling coalition who currently have both power and responsibility, have not only failed to attend but have so far largely ignored points raised by concerned constituents...”

A third ward representative who is backing the campaign, Labour group leader, Councillor Willie Innes, said: “It is extremely important that this nursing home is maintained.”

An East Lothian Council statement said: “East Lothian Council has provided specialist support to the residents of the home while Mr MacDonald and his staff work to fulfil the requirements detailed by the care commission.

“Whilst improvement work is being carried out, Cockenzie Nursing Home is unable to take any new residents following a condition imposed by the Care Commission as a precautionary measure. This has led some people to speculate that there is some concern over the future of the home.”

Councillor Ruth Currie, cabinet member for adult social services, explained: “Research indicates that the key stakeholders in the planning process want to provide more opportunities for individuals to receive care within their own homes. This obviously suggests that future resources should be directed towards the development of domiciliary care support and not to developing further places within residential and nursing homes.

“The suggestion that East Lothian Council is proposing in some way to terminate our relationship with the home in November is simply not true. We are in fact offering to continue to contract with Mr McDonald but on the same terms as every other nursing home in Scotland.”

A Care Commission spokesman said: “Any action we take against a home is because we have serious concerns that standards or regulations, which are enshrined in law, are not being met and the welfare of people using the service is compromised.

“As part of the National Care Standards, all care homes for older people must be able to offer residents the choice of a single bedroom by 31 December 2007. Care homes have had since 2001 to plan for this change and we have asked all care homes, including Cockenzie, to submit an action plan detailing how they propose to offer this choice.

“Following regular inspections and a complaint investigation, we have also issued Cockenzie House Nursing Home with a formal Enforcement Notice which sets out improvements required in the standards of care.

“One part of this notice requires the manager to identify aspects of the environment of the home which are unsafe or unhygienic and require repair, replacement or upgrading and to submit an action plan as to when this can be done”.

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