Doctor’s fear over closure of elderly dad’s Newbury Park care home
A photo taken recently of Derek Sargent with his daughter Jenefer Sargent - Credit: Archant
A Wanstead doctor fears her elderly father’s severe dementia will deteriorate irrevocably when his NHS care home run by a private company closes in the coming weeks.
Abbey Road Nursing Home in Newbury Park (Picture: Ellie Hoskins) - Credit: Archant
Gold Care Homes announced plans to shut Abbey Road Nursing Home in Newbury Park this month, and gave 28 days’ notice for its residents to be rehoused.
84-year-old Derek Sargent with his 12-year-old grandson Louis at Abbey Road Nursing Home's last Christmas pantomime - Credit: Archant
Twelve residents remain at the home, in Abbey Road, including the 84-year-old father of Great Ormond Street consultant paediatrician Jenefer Sargent.
She said Derek Sargent, a former civil engineer who has a condition known as Dementia with Lewy Bodies, which shares symptoms with Parkinson’s and Alzeimer’s, faced undergoing “a deterioration from which he may not fully recover” if he is moved.
She also said the rapport built with the staff at the home over the past seven years would be difficult to recreate.
“There are many with whom he has built good relationships and they can coax meaning and intention out of his muddled words because they have looked after him for several years and know a little more of who he has been,” she said.
She feared the closure was a casualty of NHS outsourcing of elderly care to “private companies who seek to make a profit and then get out of the sector when they find it is not possible”.
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The company’s director Ravi Gidar said: “We have managed Abbey Road Nursing Home for almost two years but the home needs substantial investment to be suitable for the residents in the area and it is with regret that we have decided to terminate our agreement with Viridian Housing so that they can review the future plans for the home.”
