THE JOBS of 51 staff at a private nursing home in Co Wexford are in jeopardy as patients at the facility are being moved on to other nursing homes.
For the past five weeks most of the staff at Carrig Tur nursing home in Enniscorthy have not been paid, while their efforts to speak to management have proven unsuccessful.
The proprietor of the home is Bernie Purcell who is also a director of Roebuck Consulting Ltd.
That company was at the centre of controversy in 2008 for charging sums of up to €250,000 for “life-mentoring” services. Efforts to contact Ms Purcell yesterday were unsuccessful.
Many staff have stopped turning up for work as they feel they have been left “in limbo” by management, one staff member, who asked not to be named, said yesterday.
Patients in the home are being moved out to other facilities around the county, and also to a local geriatric hospital.
It is understood the HSE is arranging this, as it had a number of patients in the home.
In a statement staff said they did everything they could to keep the nursing home open, including taking a 10 per cent pay cut last August and other cost-cutting measures.
The HSE in a statement said: “The HSE is continuing to liaise with the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) and other private nursing homes in the Co Wexford area, as regards the possible re-location of residents currently catered for at the Carraig Tur nursing home, Enniscorthy”.
A spokesman for Hiqa said the authority was monitoring the home on an ongoing basis in the interests of the wellbeing and safety of residents.
“We will work with the staff of the home and the HSE to ensure residents’ needs are met in that regard,” he said.