Coronavirus: Reopening care home in Somerset needs 200 workers

The Acacia Care Home in Yeovil shut last year but is being reopened to meet the growing needs

Up to 200 extra workers are needed to staff care homes to help take the pressure off the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak.

Somerset County Council is reopening a 39-bed care home in Yeovil to house patients, along with buying an extra 60 beds from the private sector.

It said as well as carers it needed to recruit cleaners, cooks and caretakers to help run the Acacia Care Home.

The council has been given £15.6m by ministers to help cope with the crisis.

Refresher training will be provided for the returning staff.

'Fairly good condition'

Mel Lock, director of adult social services, said the home - owned by Camelot Care Homes, which will lease it to the county council - would be for people either coming out of hospital or to help people and prevent them from going into hospital.

Somerset Care will manage the home.

Paul Teasdale, from Camelot Care Homes, said: "It's in fairly good condition considering it's not been closed for over for a year.

"There's quite a lot of checks and compliance we need to get done before we can get operational."

Last week, the county council asked its staff to redeploy to its most-needed areas of need.

Within two days, 1,000 staff volunteered to work in adult social care, to help vulnerable people in the county.