Nursing home bailed out by three-month caretaker agreement

STAFF and residents at one of the country’s largest private nursing homes have welcomed a temporary lifeline from their regional health board.

The South Eastern Health Board has agreed a three-month caretaker agreement which will see it take over, run and manage Spring Valley Nursing Home in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, for the next three months.

But once that term is over, staff say they don’t know who will pay their wages, who will run the centre and if it will close or be sold.

Close to 30 of the staff were not paid for five weeks when the 50-bed home ran into financial difficulties last month.

“We will be paid this week by the health board. But there are approximately 28 of us who are owed between three and five weeks wages,”director of nursing Marjorie Molloy said.

“We welcome this temporary arrangement, which is due to run for three months. But this is only a temporary agreement. The previous directors still have not paid us our arrears.

“We have reduced our patient numbers to 32 and have been told that there are no further admissions. But we still don’t know who is going to pick us up at the end of the three months.

At least we’ll be paid for the next three months. But who knows what will happen after that,” Ms Molloy said.

Staff at the home have clubbed together through the turmoil of the past few weeks to avoid disrupting the lives of the 32 elderly, sick and handicapped people in care there.

They range from a 32-year-old who is profoundly mentally handicapped to a 97-year-old. Claims that the home has been sold were false. It is on the market at 1.8m.

The South Eastern Health Board (SEHB) said in a statement it is taking charge of the management of Spring Valley Nursing Home for a period of time not exceeding three months.

The statement said: “This is being done in accordance with Section 9.1. (a) of the Health (nursing homes) Act 1990 and with the agreement of the owners of the nursing home.

The SEHB has taken this decision to continue the care and wellbeing of the patients currently being cared for in the nursing home.

“The SEHB is appointing a manager to run the nursing home during this time and will be retaining the existing staff. Meetings with staff and patient relatives are being organised,” it said.