GPs rally to save closure-threatened care home

The Highland Council considered a report on Lochaber Care Provision at a meeting behind closed doors on October 31. 

 

A statement issued from the local MSP Kate Forbes’ office on Thursday October 31, which contained a recommendation from a confidential paper, was later withdrawn as having been "sent in error" with an "inaccuracy". 

 

Instead, readers are referred to The Highland Council’s statement released after its meeting today, which said: "HC-One informed NHS Highland of their intention to close Moss Park Care Home on the 18 September 2024. A contractually standard notice period of 13 weeks was given.  

 

"Since that announcement, NHS Highland and The Highland Council have been working together to identify a solution to support the continuation of care in the area.  

 

"Work is ongoing at present to find an alternative solution to this closure, but in the interests of the welfare of residents, and with no such process concluded at this stage, the core team are actively planning, as a contingency, for the relocation of all residents."

 

The chairperson of the Council’s Health and Social Care Committee, Councillor David Fraser said: “We understand that this is a worrying time for residents, relatives and all involved, while we continue to pursue potential solutions for Mosspark residents.  

 

“This is a challenging situation. Across Highland, our focus remains on working with NHS Highland in reducing delayed discharges and accelerating our work towards a new care model which would support people to live more independently for longer in their own communities and shifting the balance of care from acute to sustainable community provision.” 

 

The Council added: "Further updates will be provided to all residents, staff, stakeholders, including the local community, once we have further information and progress will be reported to the Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee.

 

"The report was discussed in private session due to the nature of sensitive and confidential information contained in the report."

 

Meanwhile a cluster of Lochaber GPs have written a letter to the Chief Executive of Highland Council Derek Brown and the Chief Executive of NHS Highland Fiona Davies imploring them to work together, and with the Scottish Government, to save the care home. 

 

Dr Ian Pooleman, Cluster Quality Lead (Lochaber), said: "I am writing on behalf of the Lochaber General Practitioner Cluster to express our concerns over the closure of Mosspark nursing home. The GP Cluster is a forum, which invites representatives from all of the GP practices across the Lochaber region.

 

"We feel that Mosspark nursing home is a huge asset to our community and the loss of this resource is not only a problem for the current residents but also those who will require nursing home care in the future.

 

"Even before we heard about the imminent closure of Mosspark, local GPs have had significant concerns about the provision of care home beds across Lochaber. Lochaber has a lower provision of care home beds per head of population than the average for Highland, which in turn is lower than the national average.

 

"In addition to the residents who are permanently placed at Mosspark, our community has had access to a facility know known as the ’Failte Bed’. This is a GP-administrated bed, which allowed for the short-term placement of vulnerable people. The arrangements for this prioritised a low level of bureaucracy, which allowed us to respond to urgent need and avoid admission into the busy hospital. Examples being for end of life care, complex dressings, medication requirements or simply providing a safe place whilst someone has acute confusion due to infection and needs a safe place for a few days.

 

"We would like to acknowledge the highly skilled management and staff at Mosspark. In particular, we would like to highlight their skills in managing challenging behaviour in dementia and successfully keeping residents in their home at Mosspark. In many areas of the country, these residents would have needed to move into a specialist dementia unit, further from friends and family.

 

"Our local GPs are working on projects which are exploring options of empowering people to stay in their own homes. However we feel that there will always be a group of people for whom this is not achievable. We will always require nursing home places in Lochaber.

 

"The current owner operator of Mosspark (HC One) has been clear in their correspondence to us that part of the challenge is recruitment and retention of staff which we all know is a challenge across the care sector.

 

"However, we also understand from other conversations that there are issues around the premises and the national regulator, which surely can be resolved, at least on a temporary basis to prevent disruption to residents.

 

"We would like NHS Highland and the Highland Council to work together to avoid the closure of Mosspark nursing home. In addition, we still need a long term solution to the current lack of nursing home placements, and if this requires a capital spend then NHS Highland and the Highland Council must seek this from Scottish Government."