Gov't Regulator Announces Closure Of Substandard Nursing Home; Deals Devastating Blow To Dozens Of Dementia Patients As Families Scramble To Find New Accommodations

In Liverpool, England, the Liverpool Echo reports:

• Dozens of dementia sufferers will be forced to find somewhere new to live after a Knotty Ash care home revealed plans to close.
  
  Relatives, residents and staff contacted the ECHO after hearing of the closure of the Thomas Leigh care and nursing home, which is believed to have around 40 residents.
  
  One woman whose aunt is in the home called the huge upheaval of a move “abhorrent” for a vulnerable group of people.
  
  Bosses at the home did not respond to a request for comment about why it was closing, but the Care Quality Commision confirmed it had been told the home would shut.
  
  The news comes just a few months after one of its residents was found wandering around two miles away and suffering from hypothermia, cuts and bruises.
  
  Inspectors also slammed the home on Thomas Lane, owned by Parveen Limited, as “inadequate” and put it in special measures in December.
  
  One carer at the home said: “I’m most gutted for the residents and their families - it’s torment for them. “The move isn’t good for them. They like routine and structure, and they might be separated from their friends.”
  
  Lorraine McKinley, from Hoylake, said she was now frantically looking for a new place to live for her 96-year-old aunt, Ellen Parsley. She said: “We’ve got 90 days, after the families were called to an emergency meeting to tell us the home is closing.
  
  “All the families face a situation where they are moving very sick people, and there are not that many other homes that take people with dementia. “It is awful for residents, they are used to each other and they will not know where they are.
  
  “It’s abhorrent - it’s breaking up a community so they’ll have to start again - my aunt is not going to cope.”
  
  The ECHO revealed in December that 86-year-old resident Richard Singleton had been found walking along Roby Road in Huyton by concerned passers-by.
  
  His distraught family said paramedics told them he could have died from hypothermia if he had not been found.
  
  A Care Quality Commission spokeswoman said: “People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and well-led high quality care. We found the care provided at Thomas Leigh Care Home fell a long way short of the standards we expect services to provide. While we were considering our enforcement options for the breaches in regulation we found, the registered provider has taken steps to close the home.
  
  “We will always look to celebrate examples of outstanding care, but we won’t hesitate to take enforcement actions to close down locations which aren’t providing the level of care that people are entitled to.”

Source: Dementia patients left in the lurch as care home shuts down (It's the same home where an 86-year-old resident was found wandering two miles away in December).