Closure-threat Shropshire care home losing £25,000 a year
A Shropshire care home threatened with closure has made losses of £25,000 each year for the past five years, according to the boss of the company which runs it.
Westlands Care Home in Wem has been forecast to return losses of £77,000 this year, according to David Coull, chief executive of Coverage Care Services.
He defended plans to shut the home and said the decision to consult on its closure had been made due to its continued financial struggles.
The plans, which could see the home in Station Road close by early April, have left 54 staff and more than 30 residents facing the prospect of relocating. The company has also been criticised for not sending a representative to a public meeting in the town on Monday.
Mr Coull said: "The home has lost £25,000 a year for the last five years, and we are forecasting this year losses of £77,000."
He added that other homes in the Coverage Care company had been subsidising the losses and said Westlands would only make further losses if it stayed open.
"The home is now well past its best," he said. "In terms of the building it is pretty sound, the roof needs repairing or replacing but it is the size of the rooms that is the problem –they are very small and you need a certain size of room now.
"That is so you can provide safe care for people and the case with nursing care is that you do need the room."
Mr Coull said the demand for care in Shropshire lay in nursing care, rather than residential care found at the Wem home.
He said: "Really what is needed is nursing care alongside residential care. We would have loved to have been able to provide that, but unfortunately due to the size of the individual living areas it was not possible.
"I think Shropshire Council's idea to turn the site into extra-care housing is inspired. It will put Wem on the map by being the first town in the county to receive extra-care."
He said that of the 35 residents who were at the home when consultation of closure was announced, five had already moved to nursing care.
Another five have been returned home after a respite stay and the remaining 25 now all have plans where to move should a final decision see Westlands' doors close in April.
