A grieving relative has hit out as the doors closed on a far north care home.
Moira Horne’s 95-year-old aunt died soon after she and other residents of Achvarasdal House were told that it was to shut.
Her passing has added to the distress the family has felt about the demise of the Church of Scotland eventide home, near Reay.
It was operated by the kirk’s social care arm, Crossreach, which claimed it could not continue to bear heavy losses on its running costs.
Mrs Horne, from Thurso, said shortly after the decision to close the home had been taken, her aunt fell in the home and broke a hip. After spending five weeks in Raigmore Hospital, she was discharged to Pentland View care home in Thurso, where she died a week last Saturday.
Her aunt, whom she did not wish to identify, had been at Achvarasdal for almost four years.
Mrs Horne said the closure announcement had a disorientating effect on her aunt and the other nine elderly residents.
“It’s left a really bad feeling,” she said.
“At that stage in their lives, they should have been left with familiar faces and surroundings and that was taken away from them.
“It was a lovely home in an ideal situation and there’s no way I will ever believe that they couldn’t fill it given the desperate shortage we have for residential care in this area. I think its closure is appalling.”
Crossreach had worked with NHS Highland for over a year to find a way of securing the future of the former Victorian shooting lodge, which had served as a care home for 67 years. The last of the 26-strong staff left last week.
Thurso and Wick Trades Union Council chairman Derrick Milnes yesterday said the only chance of the home re-opening is if that is backed in the current major review of adult health and social care services in Caithness.
He said: “There will be people arguing for it to become a home again and that remains a possibility unless Crossreach sells the building in the meantime.”
A Church of Scotland spokeswoman said the home had been running at a significant loss for a number of years and had become financially unviable.
She said: “All residents have now been rehomed with suitable services according to their needs and preferences.
“We have worked closely with NHS Highland to try and identify suitable options for staff who wish to remain working in the health and social care environment but for others redundancy has been the preferred or unfortunately the only option.”
An NHS Highland spokesman said: “Most assessments of local people by NHS Highland’s adult social care services require a higher level of care than could be provided in a residential care home setting like Achvarasdal.”