‘My 102-year-old mother was thrown out into the street’

The daughter of a 102-year-old woman who had to be moved out of a care home in Bognor Regis after an enforced closure has said she is ‘disgusted’ at how the closure was communicated to families.
Sandra Jacobs concerned for her mother Betty Heath, 102. Photo by Kate Shemilt ks190140-1Sandra Jacobs concerned for her mother Betty Heath, 102. Photo by Kate Shemilt ks190140-1
Sandra Jacobs concerned for her mother Betty Heath, 102. Photo by Kate Shemilt ks190140-1

Sandra Jacobs said her mother Betty Heath had considered the Royal Bay Care Home in Aldwick her home and she hadn’t had any major issues with its care.

But on Friday, families were given just a few hours notice that the Care and Quality Commission had ordered the home to be closed down after an inspection report found residents were ‘at risk’.

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Sandra said her elderly mother, now 102, had to go out in the cold, confused as to why she was leaving.

Sandra said: “I think it’s really bad, the CQC’s procedures. They talk about the procedures of the home, what about their procedures?”

“I know there was a report and they gave the care home time to improve but they shouldn’t throw people out onto the streets, we had nothing.”

The CQC stated on Friday that moving residents from the care home 'must be done in a planned way and carried out as thoughtfully and sensitively as possible'.

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She said that all the residents who had been funded by the county council had been moved out of the home the day before via ambulance but those who were self-funded had only been told of the closure on Friday afternoon.

Only that morning, she said she had been reassured by a member of staff at the home that it wasn’t closing down and believed that to be the case.

Later at around 2pm, she was advised to look at other places, but there had been no indication of urgency and since the closure, she hadn’t had any follow-up care to check her mother was settled elsewhere.

“They just gave you an hours notice to say, yes, your mother’s got to move,” she added.

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The family is now working out a way of caring for Betty, who has been staying temporarily in assisted living facilities at the Royal Garden Hotel.

Sandra said: “It’s very uncertain, it’s very upsetting and my mother, considering her age, she’s coped really well.”