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Anger as care home closure leaves staff owed thousands



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Published Date: 15 May 2008
By HAZEL MOLLISON
CARE home staff are furious that they are still waiting for thousands of pounds in redundancy pay, two months after they lost their jobs.
More than 80 people were made redundant when the troubled Cockenzie House Nursing Home closed in March.

It had been criticised in a report by the Care Commission, and owner Jim McDonald said he could no longer afford to keep it open.

All the r
esidents have now been moved to other homes.

But staff fear they may face a long wait for redundancy pay due to a dispute between Mr McDonald and East Lothian Council.

He claims he cannot afford to pay them because the council owes him £150,000. But the council denies this, saying it is his responsibility to ensure staff are paid.

Karen Martin, of Prestonpans, who had worked at the home for six years, is owed about £1400.

She said: "It's disgusting. It's the employees who are losing out here. I was lucky to get another job straight away, but I'm not working as many hours as I did. A lot of the girls aren't working at all. They were the breadwinners, and now they are scrimping and saving.

"It's really difficult for a lot of them, especially if they have kids. Some are owed £5500."

She said she and her husband might be forced to cancel their summer holiday. But she did not blame her former employer.

She said: " He did everything in his power to keep it open. But the council and him don't get on."

Mr McDonald decided to close the home after the Care Commission imposed a ban on new admissions last year. It criticised the home for failing to meet standards of health care, nutrition and food hygiene.

But relatives, local doctors and community leaders had campaigned to keep it open. They said it provided a good standard of care, and the only complaints related to minor issues.

Former staff received a letter from Mr McDonald yesterday, reading: "I'm not able to pay redundancy at the moment as East Lothian Council has not paid Cockenzie House the last five payments of the contract. As soon as I get paid, I will pay you."

He has claimed that he has not yet been paid £150,000, which he was promised for keeping the home open until the end of March, while another home was being prepared for residents.

But East Lothian Council has denied breaking its contract with Mr McDonald. Ruth Currie, the council's adult social care leader, said: "It's Mr McDonald's responsibility to pay his staff."

A council spokeswoman added: "Any concerns he may have regarding council funding would be inappropriate to discuss in public."

Mr McDonald could not be reached for comment.





The full article contains 465 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 15 May 2008 10:44 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: East Lothian
 
1

Ham Shank,

15/05/2008 13:42:36
Och no!
2

,

15/05/2008 20:36:36
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
3

,

15/05/2008 20:37:04
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
4

THE BPRENTICE,

15/05/2008 21:24:32
I'm really sorry to see any business close and I have every sympathy with Jim McDonald and the staff that have lost their livelyhoods.

However, I doubt very much that the Care Commission should be blamed....

....from my insider knowledge...the Care Commission is a very good organisation full of experienced professionals - they are a govt agency that follows govt guidelines and they follow professional procedures as well as apply common sense. If they imposed any kind of ban on an organisation - it would have been for a good reason.

I wouldn't have bothered typing that if I didn't believe it. Sometimes its all too easy to slag of the big organisation.
5

Ian down under,

Kawerau 15/05/2008 22:58:34
The Care Commission are not packed full of professionals. They are didactic, 'in triplicate' pen-pushing civil servants. The experts are the people who actually do the work and can properly assess care without having to use a tick-sheet.
Real experts know that moving confused elderly people is distressing and can cause significant health damage. Several of the Cockenzie Residents simply 'gave up' and died, and others have moved to Care Commission approved homes where the level of care provided is well below the standard provided at Cockenzie. I have heard some terrible reports of appalling care for some of the transferred residents but no action has been seen from the Care Commission. For example at one home a resident's husband could not find a staff member to help change his wife who was sitting in wet clothes for 3 hours. That is bad care but this seems to not be on the Care Commission tick sheet.
6

THE BPRENTICE,

16/05/2008 11:27:34
#5 with respect to you - Cockenzie obviously wasn't shangri-la now was it...or it would be open now.

We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water (no pun intended, given the subject matter):

to be a 'coco'...as they are known ...a care commission officer ... you have to have a track record of being a health care professional - they are tasked with inspecting and visiting care-giving establishments as well as reacting to complaints and reports about establishments that are not meeting the required standards....they try and help businesses to get it right. They are no omni-present and if you have witnesses an incident - then I presume you've communicated it to the CC and they wil deal with it - fairly and professionally.

They are not civil servants - a commission is an independent regulator: pls see this link for more (I don't work for them btw):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Care_commission

I'm not saying the CC are perfect - they can't be no organisation is BUT often its all too easy to project all the evils on to the big organisation....as if they are the easy, sitting target to slag off and shift the blame onto.
7

Jingsitsme,

EDINBURGH 16/05/2008 19:44:49
it's not the big organisation at fault this time.....

How convenient Mr McDonald not available for comment....
8

Ian down under,

Kawerau 18/05/2008 22:12:26
The Care Commission's behaviour throughout all this was little short of disgraceful. I know from face to face meetings with them that they will say one thing in your presence and then do exactly the opposite.
Dress it up any way you like by calling them a commission or coco or any other PC term but it does not alter the fact that they are bureaucrats. Incidentally I know that the head of the Care Commission in Musselburgh does not come from a nursing background [which is the only appropriate background for such work] because she told me so herself!!!!!!!!
We unfortunately live in a world where "managers", "commissioners" and "consultants" make all sorts of decisions affecting ordinary people and we have been lulled into believing that they are independent and fair, whereas we are expected to believe that all real professionals are corrupt and self-interested. The truth is actually the opposite because the vast majority of professionals are the ones who actually can be trusted. I include the professional staff at Cockenzie House in that category. Remember too that the Care Commission actually criticised Jim McDonald for working in his own nursing home. They seem to prefer hands off owners who sit back and collect the payments rather than owners who actually roll their sleeves up and work along with their staff.
The Care Commission don't even know the geography of our area. I asked tham for a list of alternative homes for my father and specified that they needed to be on the direct bus route between Musselburgh and North Berwick [my mother does not have a car] and they gave me two homes in Edinburgh, including one at Corstorphine!!!
9

gotalottosay,

east lothian 21/05/2008 15:53:57
I am just wondering when Jim McDonald is finally going to admit that if it wasnt for his foolish mistakes at the very beginning, things would be a lot better today. Firstly, those poor old people must have been suffering in the first instance before the Care Commission came in as there were a few irregularities back then. This saga has gone on for some time now and it appears to be that each and every time something is reported, Jim McDonald conveniently blames everyone but himself. Its always the Care Commission's fault or that of the Council. The way I see it, he is due his staff money and still he is fighting with the council over this and that and these poor folk need their cash. so come on Jim McDonald, be a man, admit you got it wrong. Stop your fu***ng arguing with the world and his wife and get this matter over and done with NOW!!
10

Ian down under,

Kawerau 21/05/2008 21:35:44
I go back to what I and ALL relatives of CHNH residents have been saying, and supported by the local GPs and other APPROPRIATE professionals that the standard of care was excellent and the residents very happy. This was a witch-hunt started by a disgruntled and disgraced ex-employee who put in a malicious grudge complaint. Unfortunately because the Care Commission are only tick box marking bureaucrats they were unable to see the wood for the trees and saw their tick-sheets as being more important than people's lives.
The malicious 'whistle blower' has to live with the knowledge that his spiteful and vindictive actions have been the cause of distress and harm to innocent people.
The council were eager accomplices in thisas their plan to get rid of 70 care home beds was suddenly made possible.

 

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