Care home firm Southern Cross collapses – Fears for St John’s Wood Care Home residents as company quits 100-bed building

THE future of one of Camden’s biggest care homes is hanging in the balance after the company that runs it collapsed and handed control to landlords based in an offshore tax haven.

It will be left to Jersey-based Regency Investments Ltd to decide whether St John’s Wood Care Home remains open after Southern Cross, who ran the 100-bed home until Monday, announced it was quitting all of its 752 homes across the country.

Hampstead and Kilburn MP Glenda Jackson told the House of Commons on Tuesday Southern Cross residents and their relatives had been left in the dark over the changes.

Camden Council pays Southern Cross around £2million a year, and has 27 Camden residents in the home and a further 11 in “spot contracted beds” and 20 continuing care residents.

Town Hall officials said yesterday (Wednesday) that the home was “very profitable” and, as a result, was unlikely to close.

Published: 21st July, 2011
by TOM FOOT