Hamilton Nursing home closes 'due to credit crunch'

Aug 28 2008 by Shirley Bartynek, Hamilton Advertiser

A HAMILTON nursing home is to close – just weeks after it was criticised by a sheriff at a fatal accident inquiry.

Forty staff at Greenbank Nursing Home in Wellhall Road will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

Seventeen residents have also been forced to find alternative accommodation before October 8.

Ian Wilson, who is the sole director of Greenbank Ltd, this week insisted the closure had nothing to do with FAI at which safety standards at the home came under fire following the death of a resident.

Mr Wilson said: “We are closing because of the credit crunch. We had plans to build an extension to the nursing home, creating en-suite rooms for our residents, which is the way the market is going for nursing homes.

“The plans were all in place but the funding is no longer there.

“Our short-term problem would have been combated with a long-term solution which is now not available to us.”

Mr Wilson continued: “Our residents were told about the closure and were then offered a meeting with South Lanarkshire Council who would advise them on alternative accommodation.

“All of our residents took up that opportunity.”

The council this week confirmed that they were currently helping the residents to find new homes.

A spokesman for the authority said: “Staff from social work resources attended a meeting with relatives at Greenbank Nursing Home on Friday to support them in identifying suitable alternative accommodation.”

Henry Mathias, Care Commission regional manager, added: “We have been notified by the owners of this home of their decision to close this service.

“We will be working with them on the required phased closure of the home over the coming weeks.”

Earlier this month at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Sheriff Joyce Powrie ruled that better safety standards at the home could have prevented the death of resident Mary Devine.

The OAP broke her neck when she fell from a wheelchair at the home in May, 2005, and later died of pneumonia.

The 89-year-old, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and dementia, had been admitted to the nursing home in 2002 after relatives found they were unable to care for her.

A fatal accident inquiry was told that Mrs Devine fell from the wheelchair while being taken back to her room, after a meal, by a care assistant.

Sheriff Powrie said in her determination that appropriate footrests and a seatbelt could have prevented Mrs Devine’s death.

Evidence led during the inquiry stated that footrests fitted to a wheelchair acted as a counterforce by lifting the feet off the ground and throwing back the patient’s centre of gravity.

Sheriff Powrie concluded that footrests were a “reasonable precaution” which could have prevented the accident.