HUNDREDS OF care homes for the elderly and disabled run by a company bought by wealthy Irish investors are to be investigated in England and Wales.
The Irish investors, led by Kerry Group’s former chief executive Denis Brosnan, are JP McManus, Dermot Desmond and John Magnier.
The Care Quality Commission investigated the company, Castlebeck, after the BBC’s Panorama programme revealed evidence of shocking physical and emotional abuse of young people with learning disabilities at its Bristol operation, Winterbourne View.
Winterbourne has been closed since, and now the commission has said it has serious concerns about four Castlebeck homes in Solihull, Nottingham, Meltow Mowbray and Rose Villa in Bristol, if not on the same scale as Winterbourne.
Seven more are deemed non-compliant with standards: Acrefield House in Wirral, Briar Court Nursing Home in Hartlepool, Chesterholme in Hexham, the East Midlands Centre for Neurobehavioural Rehabilitation in Melton Mowbray, Hollyhurst in Darlington, Oaklands in Hexham and Willow House in Edgbaston.
Indicating that Castlebeck will face legal actions, Cynthia Bower, the commission’s chief executive said: “We need to be clear: we have not found problems on the same scale as were found at Winterbourne View. However, we do have serious concerns at four locations in particular.”
Castlebeck was bought in 2006 for £255 million by the Swiss-based Lydian Capital Partners, which was set up by Mr Brosnan as a private investment company after he left Kerry Group. He was joined by Mr McManus, Mr Desmond and Mr Magnier, and other wealthy Irish investors.
Profits at Castlebeck, which charges the National Health Service up to £3,500 a week for each patient, have increased substantially since Lydian took over, from £18 million in 2007 to more than £31 million in 2009.
Citing the poor practices discovered, the commission said inspectors found that bedroom and other doors were locked “without explanation”, while staff shortages in homes meant that many never got the personal treatment promised.
Castlebeck has been in turmoil since it was told by BBC’s Panorama that it had film of abuses at Winterbourne. This led the company’s non-executive directors to order a PricewaterhouseCoopers investigation into standards.
Mr Brosnan’s son Paul, who has served as chairman of Castlebeck since he joined the board in 2008, resigned last week, saying the company needed a chairman with the “relevant health and social care experience at this time”.
Mr Brosnan jnr’s resignation came after four staff were suspended last week at the company’s Rose Villa home, coming on top of the 12 Winterbourne staff who are still on police bail after being arrested after the programme.
Chief executive of Castlebeck Lou Reed said the problems reported on yesterday by the commission had been noted and worked on since he took over the reins in January: “The safety and wellbeing of people in our care will always be of paramount importance to us. We will have a zero tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour directed against those who use our services.” He said he was deeply sorry for all that happened and apologised for incidents that has not met the “high standards” they expected.
