Chief Executive’s Statement: Riverview Health and Wellbeing Centre

Published: 22 November 2017

Following recent media coverage, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has issued the following statement to inform local people about the current position with the Riverview Health and Wellbeing Centre.

Mairead McAlinden, Trust Chief Executive said:

“A number of issues have been identified in the quality of provision at Riverview Care Home in Dartmouth and the home is now subject to a safeguarding review. The Trust is working with Devon County Council and South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to support the registered owners of the care home, High Trees Limited, in delivering the required improvements. We are all absolutely focussed on ensuring that current residents are safe and properly cared for.

“The owners of Riverview, High Trees, have decided that while these improvements are being made they will not take on new residents. They have also decided that, in response to concerns raised by the CQC, they are unable to continue to offer registered nursing care for a period of time. This means that while the improvements are being made there is a need to place a small number of people with nursing needs into alternative homes. The local team is working with those individuals and their families to find suitable alternative care arrangements. We understand that this is a very difficult time for these people, and we will do everything we can to minimise disruption to the support they receive, whilst ensuring that everyone continues to receive safe care appropriate for their individual needs.”

Senior Managers from Devon County Council, South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group and the Trust are working on plans to secure nursing home beds in the Dartmouth area. The plan for the Riverview site is to create a new Health and Wellbeing Centre for the people of Dartmouth, opening in 2018, that includes new accommodation for the Dartmouth Medical Practice, Dartmouth Caring, Trust health and care staff, all the clinics currently provided in the centre of town, and Lloyds the chemist. The intention is that this facility will deliver a sustainable and high quality care home facility with intermediate care (nursing) beds. This will complement the wide range of services provided by all the partners involved in this development to support people to live independently in their own homes.

Mairead continued: “We are working together as a partnership to deliver a complex and specialised integrated care development. Work is already underway to secure a long-term partner to run the care home at Riverview and we are in discussions with interested parties about how they can help us to meet current and future residential and nursing care needs for people in the Dartmouth area.”

Local MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston commented: “We must see the plans for Riverview implemented as envisioned and bring all services under one roof. That includes nursing and intermediate care beds, for example, for those who need palliative care or to help people to regain their independence or reduce the time they need to spend in hospital. The situation with the current care home is a setback and every effort is being made to find another provider to make sure that nursing care beds will be available as soon as possible, and maintained for the future.”

Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for adult social care, said:

“We are working hard to find a solution that meets the needs of people in Dartmouth whilst also ensuring quality care is available for people who need support.”

We are grateful for the support of all partners to the development plan that will help us deliver this new facility in 2018. We look forward to providing further news as the project progresses.