Covid: Care home boss remortgages own home amid staff crisis

Sandra Joyce has remortgaged her own home and bought a property to house workers arriving from India and Nigeria

A care home owner who was unable to find local staff to fill vacancies has remortgaged her own home to fund bringing in workers from abroad.

Sandra Joyce has also bought a new house so that her new staff, from India and Nigeria, have a place to stay.

She said she could not bring staff over on the promise of a job, and then say "sorry but you've got nowhere to live".

Linden House Nursing Home in Wellington, Somerset, is operating at 50% capacity due to staff shortages.

Ms Joyce said: "I actually made the decision to remortgage my own home and buy a four-bedroom property so that I knew that when the recruits came from abroad, that I would have somewhere for them to live."

New recruits are needed urgently as the care home is operating at half its capacity due to staff shortages

Ms Joyce said she looked further afield after a local recruitment drive failed to find new staff.

"It's not just costs, it's also finding them accommodation because that is incredibly hard, in fact it was nigh-on impossible.

"I can't bring them over to this country and then say 'oh I'm terribly sorry but you've got nowhere to live and therefore you can't come and work for me'," she added.

Chef Jodie Oaten said the threat of bringing Covid-19 into the home gave her "quite a lot of anxiety"

Ten residents died in three weeks in a Covid outbreak at the home last Christmas.

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"We were clear for so long and then it just hit us. It was long, it was tiring and it was scary," said head chef Nic Cappell.

"I just hope that we can make Christmas Day special and we have our big Christmas dinner with singing and everyone enjoying themselves but at the moment I just go day by day."

Chef Jodie Oaten added: "The threat of bringing it in here gives me quite a lot of anxiety. I don't mix with anyone else outside work. I meet one friend for a dog walk a couple of times a week and that's it."