AMID an escalating crisis of care-home closures - they are now shutting at the rate of 750 a year - East Lancashire saw the brutal reality of nine elderly people being given less than 24 hours to get out as the one they lived in became yet another casualty.

The precise reasons for the sudden shutdown of the Scout Rest Home in Burnley Road East, Waterfoot, are not yet fully known. But it seems that cost burdens were among those that caused its owners to give up.

The concerns of home owners in the private sector are real, and point to a potentially-acute social crisis as the loss of places puts pressure on hospital beds and the care services charged with looking after more old people in their own homes.

But at the sharp end of this syndrome are human lives.

What of the impact on these old people, when suddenly they have to leave the place that has been their home for years?

Disturbingly, we hear claims from a relatives' action group fighting the proposals to close 35 County Council-run homes for the elderly that studies show that the upheaval and shock of being abruptly uprooted increases the chances of frail and vulnerable old people dying sooner.

And no matter what harsh economic forces may dictate, it is surely wrong that old people should be so dreadfully exposed to their ruthlessness that they have to endure a fate like those forced to leave the Scout Rest Home in Rossendale.

Some kind of early-warning system is needed to cushion these blows and enable social services agencies to ease their transition to new accommodation. And as we have argued before, the care home industry needs some sort of bond system to provide residents with this sort of safety net when homes are forced to shut.