Lifeline for victims of care home crisis

Miranda House Nursing Home in High Street, Wootton Bassett, which cares for elderly people with psychiatric problems - including Alzheimer's Disease and dementia - proposes to boost the number of places from 43 to 67 with an extension.

But manager Gill Gray admits finding the extra 12 members of staff needed could prove a major headache for herself and proprietor Peter Saunders, as the crisis forces many to quit the profession altogether.

She said: "The industry is in deep trouble. Attracting and equally as importantly retaining staff is going to be a real struggle for us now.

"If the council give us planning permission for the new rooms we will need the extra staff to cope.

"The industry is seeing a lot of people leaving and entering other careers. This is due to a mixture of increased workloads and low pay.

"Since the implementation of the Care Standards Act 2000 last year, there has certainly been a big increase in the amount of paperwork.

"Caring is a difficult enough career as it is without having to spend hours filling in forms."

Mrs Gray says she like thousands of others in the country is rapidly becoming entangled in red tape, fuelled by local authority under-funding.

"These new beds will help to improve the situation. There are a lot of people in small psychiatric units who are well enough to leave but have nowhere to go.

"Homes need to bring in more staff, but there isn't the money to do that because Social Services aren't paying enough," she said.

Despite this, Mrs Gray is adamant the home would not be following the example of Richard Harris, chairman of the Swindon Care Homes' Association, who told the Evening Advertiser last week that he would no longer be accepting Social Services referrals to his Quarry Mount Residential Home.

She said: "I can see his ultimate goal but what he achieves is a different matter altogether. I personally, however, would not want to refuse Social Service referrals."

But Mr Saunders admits the home would not have been able to keep its head above water without the privately-funded patients, which make up the majority.

He said: "Although Swindon Council has increased the amount it pays, it still lags far behind neighbouring counties. While Swindon might pay £430 a week for a resident, Berkshire will pay up to £100 more. That unfortunately is what we are dealing with.

"I always quote the example of a bed and breakfast, where you would expect to pay anything up to £65 a night in a large town. We are being asked to provide a better service than that, including all meals, laundry and health care for the same price or less it's not possible."

Mr Saunders, who says he has the backing of two top consultants at Chippenham Hospital, says he's defying sound financial sense in planning to extend the home.

"Any financial adviser would say that if you plough £2 million into a venture and you only make £10,000 profit out of it in a year, it is totally unviable and you are better off sticking the money in a bank," he said.

The owner says persuading planning officials to approve the plans will be difficult.

He said: "Planners do not take into account the needs of people who are in urgent need of a nursing bed they seem to care more about whether a tree needs to be felled.

"But the area really needs this extension so things can get better."

l Wootton Bassett Town Council will meet at the council's Station Road offices tomorrow at 7pm to discuss the planning application which will be decided by North Wiltshire District Council.