North Coast care home on brink of closure as health manager warns staffing issues are 'acute'
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Sutherland’s senior NHS manager has warned that a north coast care home is teetering on the brink of a “temporary” closure due to staffing difficulties.
NHS Highland area manager Kate Kenmure revealed the situation at Caladh Sona, located at Talmine, was “precarious”, with nearly half of the posts vacant and "exhausted" staff struggling to cope.
Ms Kenmure said the home would continue to function until mid-February with rotas already in place, but she was unsure how much longer it would be able to keep going after that.
Addressing an online meeting of Tongue Community Council last Tuesday she said: “The care home is in a precarious position from a staffing perspective and it does give me some concern about residents and their safety.
“We are going from day to day trying to cover the shifts and make it safe. I am doing everything I can to maintain a safe staffing level and support the residents, but I am just unable to fill vacancies.”
A six-bed unit, Caladh Sona has five beds occupied, with one “Bluebell” bed reserved for patient referral by local GPs. The unit's full staffing complement is 19 but at present there are seven vacancies.
“For a very small workforce, seven vacancies is quite a big percentage and there is usually one member of staff on annual leave,” said Ms Kenmure. “There are only two staff on duty during a shift and if one goes off at short notice, we cannot leave a single person on duty. There has to be someone else found from somewhere and I am increasingly having difficulty finding someone.”
She paid tribute to the staff who, she said, were working well above their contracted hours and were “exhausted” having done so for a year at least.
“The manager Gemma Mackenzie is amazing. She is going above and beyond and the rest of the staff are the same. They are so dedicated and working so hard to fill shifts. But I am worried about them," she said.
Ms Kenmure told the community council that she was relying heavily on agency and bank staff to fill the gaps, but was having to pay extra for their travel and accommodation.
NHS Highland currently has access to a three-bedroom property in the area for the use of agency staff.
Ms Kenmure said steps were being taken to try to address the staffing issues and she was not so concerned about the situation in the “long-term”.
“I am going into schools and colleges to try to get pupils to think about working in the care sector. We hope to introduce modern apprenticeships to encourage young people into a career in care homes.
“I also have approval in place for a care rural support worker who would work at home, in the community and on the nursing team. But it will take a bit of time to put somebody in place and train them up to a high level.”
She added that she wanted the community council to be aware of the situation so that any possible temporary closure of the home would not come as a surprise to members.
“If you have anybody you think would be appropriate to work in the care home, that would be really great,” she said.
Should the home have to be closed, residents would be transferred to Sinclair Court, Melvich, Bayview House in Thurso and Seaforth House in Golspie.
“Melvich is not too bad (for staffing) at the moment - they have a tolerable amount of vacancies,” said Ms Kenmure. "We have quite a turnover of staff at Seaforth, but they do seem to fill the jobs, although no care home at the moment is flush with staff.”
Community Council chairman Andrew Gunn said: “We would hate to see Caladh Sona closed down for any length of time.”
The meeting went on to discuss the housing issues and the rate of pay for care workers.
Caladh Sona and is sister unit, Sinclair Court at Melvich are set to close permanently with care beds to be provided by the planned new North Sutherland Health and Social Care Hub at Tongue.
