A member of staff at a care home – which was closed by Cornwall Council at the end of 2024 after being deemed no longer fit for purpose – has said some elderly residents died soon after being moved to new accommodation and is critical of the way employees and residents were treated.

Cornwall Council made the decision to purchase Trefula Nursing Home at Vogue, near St Day, in 2019 to prevent its closure. However, despite its arm’s length company Corserv taking over running of the home and considerably improving the quality of service, the building is no longer suitable for use as a care home and attempts to identify a developer for the site were unsuccessful.

The council says that in the past few months staff have been working closely with residents and their families to help them find a suitable, alternative care home, close to their family and friends.

However, a former member of staff has said this wasn’t always the case and has spoken out due to their concerns about the whole process of Trefula’s closure. The employee does not want to be named in case speaking out harms their chances of future employment, but they believed it was important to talk to us about their concerns.

They said: “Trefula nursing home is empty and staff were served notice last month but were not able to tell anyone. Despite the public statement being that staff would be supported and redeployed if they wanted to be, not all staff were redeployed and the level of support given was zero. In fact, many staff were not even informed of what was happening at all.

“Residents were moved quickly and some moved miles away from home. For example, a gentleman who lived in St Day all his life has been moved to Penzance. One resident was moved to Par. Residents were told last minute that they were moving, some only told the morning they were moving.

“Some families were not even informed that their relative had moved – some turned up to visit and found the home empty, and didn’t know where their relative had gone.”

They believe being moved may have had a catastrophic effect on some residents.

“When the home closure was announced, management were told that the move would kill people, and to my knowledge two residents passed away shortly after being moved to new homes, one was frail and should never have been moved and the other had no health issues but died a week after being moved. A third resident was just moved rooms in the building in preparation for him to be moved and changing rooms was enough to cause him to deteriorate and pass away.

“I know of residents who were crying when they were being moved. Residents with dementia, who people said ‘oh well they won’t know what’s going on’, were terrified while being put on ambulance transport.”

The former member of staff added: “When the home was empty staff were told they still had to go in to clean and move furniture, take pictures down, etc. One day about a week after the last resident had left the building, a resident’s sister turned up and was shocked to find her sister had been moved. The following day her friend turned up to visit her, she also had not been advised of the move.

“Most of the individuals that were redeployed were management, senior carers and overseas workers. Many carers and all the nursing staff were not redeployed and are now either unemployed or had to find new employment with little or no support from HR despite what was said publicly.”

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council has responded to the concerns. They said: “All care home placements were discussed with the person and agreed with their family. In some cases, they had to move further away than they would have liked due to the lack of placements available in the area.

“The needs of residents have been the highest priority through what we know has been a difficult time for these residents. Staff have had to make some difficult decisions based on assessing the risks of moving people, against staying in a building which was no longer safe for them.

“All staff were aware of the plan to close and received support throughout the closure period.”

The spokesperson added: “Corserv currently provides a range of care services and they have worked with staff to deploy them into other areas of the business wherever possible. Where workers preferred not to transfer they were signposted to support from the Proud to Care Cornwall team to identify other opportunities.

“Our long-term ambition is to identify a developer who can build a new care home on the site at Trefula that will be fit for purpose for the future residents of St Day and the surrounding area.”