Care home hit by nurse recruitment “crisis”

Tuesday 03 March 2020

Jersey's only residential facility for looking after physically disabled islanders came “very, very close” to breaking regulations at Christmas, amid a crisis in recruiting registered nurses, it has emerged.

Jersey Cheshire Home's Honorary Chair Jim Hopley exposed the difficulties the charity has been experiencing during a recent hearing with the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel.

Mr Hopley, who is also the Vice Chair and Treasurer for Shopmobility, a charity which hires out powered scooters, chairs, quad- and tri-walkers to disabled islanders, met the panel to discuss the new Care Model that is being developed by the government to lighten the hospital's load.

Having been involved in the consultation process for model due to accompany the now-abandoned 'Future Hospital', Mr Hopley described the latest one as an “operating model”, rather than an “holistic” one, noting it had been put together by professionals within the health department, without much consultation with the general public. 

Pictured: The new care model proposed by the Government.

“…The direction of travel seems to make sense but it is only part of the solution, it is not the full monty as one may have discovered,” Mr Hopley said. “There is an awful lot of extra policy that needs to be developed on the back of it and there is still work.” 

The charity stalwart said he would give the model “6 out of 10”, adding it would depend on the resources being put behind that, not only “pure cash” but also in terms of “infrastructure”. 

Mr Hopley then went on to talk about “the elephant in the room”, saying: “...Without any doubt at all - and I have been criticised for saying it but I will go on saying it - is that there really is a major problem out there with staffing resources, both within the department and… in the private sector and certainly in the voluntary sector.”

He then expressed that Jersey Cheshire Home itself had been affected by what he described as “a shortage of quality staff” around Christmas. 

Pictured: Jersey Cheshire Home is based at Eric Young House on Rope Walk.

“I will not say we had to shut down but we were very, very close to breaking regulations because we did not have enough state-registered nurses,” Mr Hopley told the Panel.

Luckily, the Health Department helped the charity recruit three Zimbabwean nurses on a temporary contract from the UK, though Mr Hopley said this was costing Cheshire Home “an awful lot of money”.

The charity chair said the department was at the top of the “pecking order” thanks to the terms and conditions they can offer to candidates and the support they can give to attract those candidates. 

“They have accommodation and they can do various things that the private sector and voluntary organisations find difficult to do,” he explained.

Pictured: People are moving around in the care sector, as they are “enticed” to join other organisations.

In addition, Mr Hopley said there is “a seller’s market” in the sector, with people moving around as they are “enticed” to join other organisations.

In addition to struggling with the recruitment of state registered nurses, Mr Hopley said Cheshire Home is having difficulties filling the position of 'Head of Care', despite it being “a senior position with a reasonable salary with good terms and conditions”.

“Anybody who tells me there is not a problem out there have got their head in the sand, I am afraid,” Mr Hopley added. “That cascades down to quality care assistants and so forth. There is people who come to the Island, it takes them two and three years to get any experience when they become reasonably capable so there are issues.”

According to the Cheshire Homes Chairman, the recruitment issues are due to the government's approach, which he said was not holistic.

“The Health Department, and rightly so they are front engine of this in some way, have taken action to try to solve their own problems,” he explained.

“They have offered some training and they have offered assistance but the whole proposition is predicated on a lot more services being backed into not only the community but into the private sector as well. To achieve that they have to have the people resources.”