Closure-Hit Care Home ‘Never Had Support Of Local Authority’

Hempriggs Residential Care Home near Wick has closed after nearly 18 years of operation due to a steady decline in referrals over the past few years.

The house, which was built in 1692 and was once the family home of the Dunbars, will now be going on the market with an asking price of over £475,000.

Hempriggs, which was converted into a private residential home in 1989, ceased operating as a care establishment two weeks ago. The remaining seven residents moved to nursing homes in Wick.

Manager Shirley Bird, who has been there just under three years, said some of the residents had been quite upset at the prospect of moving. She said: “It was a friendly home with a good atmosphere.”

Staff from Hempriggs made sure the residents were settled in their new homes, providing a continuity of care. Off the 12 staff on the payroll, some have already taken up new jobs, while those remaining are getting ready for a sale of furniture which is to be held at the house on Wednesday at noon.

Hempriggs proprietor Ian Forrest-Jones, who lives in Devon, said the worst part of the closure was the fact that residents were losing their homes. One of the clients had been at the private care home for around nine years. Mr Forrest-Jones said:

“We are disappointed…we had no choice. We have never really had the support of the local authority. There were very few referrals coming through.”

The proprietor was of the opinion that the social work department preferred to do everything in-house rather than use the private sector. He added that they had been able to give plenty of notice to the residents and staff about the closure.

Speaking about the sale of the property, he said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for someone to take it over. Hopefully someone will make a go of it in another format.” The house, a couple of miles south of Wick on the A99, includes 20 acres of woodland and paddocks with another 80 acres on the other side of the main road and fishing rights on Loch Hempriggs.

When the listed building was converted into a private residential home it had rooms to cater for a total of 24 residents. In 1996, just seven years after the private care home opened, rumours were already surfacing about the future of the venture. At that point the establishment was operating at just half its capacity with only 12 residents.

However, the manager at the time, Margaret Issacs, strongly denied that there were any plans to close. The residential home again hit the headlines in 2003 when detectives were called to investigate a complaint from the Care Commission. At that point the Highland Council slapped an embargo on referrals to the home and gave residents who were funded or supported by the council an opportunity to move to other accommodation.

The then manager, Iris Hallam, left at the beginning of the following year amid controversy about her alleged management style, which came to light during a Care Commission investigation. At the time the home had 17 residents and all were reported as being happy to remain there following the findings made by the commission.