Wrexham: Trewythen Hall Care Home in Gresford closes its doors

The 28-room Trewythen Hall Care Home in Gresford closed its doors just before Christmas after working with Wrexham Council to find alternative accommodation for the residents.

Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales, said it comes at a time when hospitals like the Maelor in Wrexham are at "breaking point" because of so-called bed-blocking with patients unable to be discharged after their medical treatment has been completed.

In a message to families, Trewythen Hall, which opened in the early 1980s, said it had had been forced to shut its doors because it was not able to recruit enough workers.

According to Mario Kreft, the problems in recruiting and retaining staff were affecting the whole of the social care sector and he feared other care homes would be following suit in shutting their doors.

Mario Kreft MBE (Image: Newsquest)

The situation had been made even worse by the unprecedented pressures of the pandemic which had left staff exhausted.

It was a sentiment echoed in the statement from Trewythen Hall, which said: “Trewythen Hall Care Home service has faced a long-term recruitment challenge since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made staffing our care home consistently to the appropriate levels, reliant on agency carers or overtime shifts from our amazing staff.

“Despite our best efforts to attract qualified carers to the home, we have been unable to solve this recruitment challenge. Trewythen Hall began expansion and refurbishing works in 2019, to modernise all facilities and bring all the residential care bedrooms to above regulatory size.

"Sadly, access and material shortages during the pandemic only allowed us to complete a handful of the bedrooms."

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The statement added: "In light of the ongoing issues in operating as residential care service in the present environment, we have made the difficult decision to close the care service.”

Mr Kreft said: “The closure of Trewythen is an absolute disaster for the vulnerable residents, their families and the staff who have lost their jobs. We have already seen other care homes in North Wales having to close because of staffing and financial problems plaguing the sector.

“We are in the midst of a major crisis at the moment. There are no beds for people who need them. Meanwhile, ambulances are queuing outside with their engines running and the paramedics on board are waiting for many hours to admit people who need hospital care.

“The situation is going to be exacerbated by the demographics with the ever-increasing number of older people. It’s great that people are living long and the over 85 will be doubling over the coming years and that will serve to ramp up the pressure on services which are already at breaking point."

He added: “We do not have the provision – both in terms of people and capacity in care homes – to provide social care for them all. These beds are hugely costly to replace and once a care home closes it is highly unlikely that it will ever reopen.

“The other problem is that if there are any new care homes being built, they won’t necessarily be within the local communities they are now and we’ll have vulnerable people being shipped out to facilities miles and miles away from their families and friends."