Booted out at 102 after care home shut with hours’ warning

A WOMAN aged 102 was made homeless after her care home was suddenly closed down.

Betty heath, pictured, who was born during the first World War, was among distressed residents left ‘anxious and confused’.

Shocked families were given just hours’ notice before The royal Bay residential care home in Bognor regis, West Sussex, was closed.

Government inspectors ordered the closure, saying the home was badly managed and residents were at risk.

But the home’s boss last night called the move a ‘ body- snatch’, claiming one resident died just days later.

Mrs heath’s ‘ disgusted’ daughter Sandra Jacobs, 73, said families were summoned on friday last week, adding: ‘I didn’t think there was any urgency. None of us wanted to move our parents because we all knew they would be confused and anxious.’ But just hours later, she was told to pack up her mother’s belongings and ‘get her out immediately’.

The retired secretary, of Slough, Berkshire, said: ‘When we explained to my mum, she was distressed and she couldn’t understand why she had to leave. She said, “This is my home, I’m 102”.

‘We found a couple of homes nearby, but one was taken by somebody else and the other one was awful. She could not stay with family because there would be nobody at home to look after her.’

Eventually Mrs Jacobs found a room for her mother at a local hotel.

In 2017, cQc inspectors found the home ‘required improvement’. Last June another report found there was no manager, and that residents were still at risk. Then last week inspectors paid a third visit. Interim chief inspector Debbie Westhead said: ‘As a result.. we had no choice but to use our urgent enforcement powers to protect the people who were still living at royal Bay residential home.’ But the cQc blamed West Sussex county council for implementing the closure too quickly.

In turn, Paul McKay, of the authority, insisted: ‘residents left the home over three days and their well-being was paramount to the action we took.’

Last night the home’s boss russell Wilson said: ‘residents and staff are all upset by this heavyhanded approach – this was a body-snatch. Within a minute, the place had to be emptied. This sort of upheaval can cause early death. One lady died a few days later. We are consulting lawyers. ’