Plan in place to relocate residents at soon to close care home in Ellesmere

Shropshire Council said it was disappointed to hear Ellesmere Community Nursing Home will be closing and that alternative arrangements are already in place to relocate residents to other homes.

Trustees, who are yet to comment on the homes' confirmed closure, announced last month that the facility was facing an uncertain future and they feared they were fighting a losing battle to keep it open.

Councillor Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for adult social care, health and housing, said: "Shropshire Council is disappointed to hear of the closure of Ellesmere Community Nursing Home.

"The council have been contacted by the owners of the home and informed that they will be closing the nursing home with effect from December 8.

"Although we have no funded residents at the home, we appreciate this is a very distressing time for residents and their families, and our commitment now is to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of those affected.

"Adult social care staff are currently supporting both the nursing home and it’s residents to ensure that they are provided with necessary advice and information in response to the planned closure.

"Alternative arrangements are already in place and residents will be moving shortly to different nursing homes."

The former cottage hospital is run by a community trust after residents helped raise about £1 million to buy the building back from the NHS, and to refurbish and equip it as a registered nursing home. The home opened in 1994 following the fundraising campaign launched after the cottage hospital was closed in 1988.

Speaking last month, trustees revealed that proposals to have some NHS-funded beds have been turned down.

"With just eight beds, the nursing home is far too small in scale to be financially viable and sustainable," trust chairman Mike Sleigh said previously.