The company that owns a care home on Skye where 10 residents have died in a Covid-19 outbreak has been allowed to continue running the site for at least three more weeks.
HC-One, the UK’s largest care homes company, faced being stripped of its licence to run the Home Farm care home on Skye after a regulator said last week it had “serious and significant concerns” about its management.
A sheriff ruled on Tuesday that HC-One could continue running the site until at least 10 June after it reached an agreement with NHS Highlands and other agencies that would minimise disruption and allow management issues to be addressed.
The regulator Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) applied to the court to cancel HC-One’s licence to run Home Farm, in Portree, after 30 residents and 29 staff tested positive for coronavirus.
The outbreak led to all affected staff being sent home and their families asked to self-isolate for 14 days, and the army set up a mobile rapid testing centre on Skye to do community-screening.
Last Thursday, the Care Inspectorate announced it wanted the courts to strip HC-One of its licence after its inspections uncovered serious problems at the home. The local MSP, Kate Forbes, said she had been told NHS Highland had effectively taken over running the home.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald, sitting in a virtual court hosted by the Inverness sheriff court, was told by Roddy Dunlop QC, the lawyer for the SCSWIS, that all parties had agreed to avoid “the nuclear option” of evicting HC-One to minimise disruption.
He said they had all agreed to suspend the motion to strip the company of its licence for the time being.
“NHS Highland have taken steps to address the concerns and it has been seen that there have been substantial improvements, but not all concerns have been fully addressed,” Dunlop said. “If all concerns are resolved, then this need go no further. Weekly inspections will continue for the next three weeks and regular dialogue will be ongoing.”
HC-One’s representative, Peter Gray, told the court: “Matters are being treated extremely seriously by those I represent, and that they should be addressed robustly to ensure that the necessary improvements are made.”
MacDonald agreed to suspend the motion to lift HC-One’s licence, and said: “The community of Skye deserve a rapid solution and it is right that all parties have come together to try and deliver that.”
