AN East Lancashire health watchdog chairman today called for a halt on the closure of a nursing home due to shut on Christmas Eve and said: "Let there be no mistake about it - people will die if this is rushed through."

Coun Frank Clifford, chairman of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council, spoke out after it was revealed that Rowell Grange Nursing Home in Woodlea Road, Waterfoot, would close on Friday.

More than 20 staff and 16 residents at the home, which has been in the hands of receivers KPMG Corporate Recovery for two years, were told they would lose their jobs and homes on Monday because a £135,000 sale had fallen through.

They are now trying to find new homes for residents before Christmas Eve, when redundancy notices are due to be served.

But Mr Clifford said there should be a full and thorough needs assessment of all patients to ensure they were well enough to move and able to handle the trauma of upheaval from their home.

He went on: "Let there be no mistake about it, people will die if this is rushed through - it has happened in the past and will happen again unless the whole process is handled with extreme care." Yesterday heartbroken staff and residents wept openly as they struggled to come to terms with the news.

Emily Johnson, 87, has lived there for almost three years and does not know where she is going to go.

She cried: "I feel terrible. I can't believe it, it is a real shock. It's not fair. This is a lovely place and the staff are lovely too, they really look after us and it's such a shame it has to close.

"You wouldn't think they would be able to do this to us in just a few days. Somebody should feel disgusted with themselves for doing this because I don't know where I am going to go. I just hope it is somewhere near so I can still see my daughter."

Great-grandma Gladys Peacock, 90, was also upset by the news.

She said: "I don't know where I am going to go. This has really upset me. I've made a lot of friends here, including the staff, and I am going to have to leave them behind."

Mrs May Miah, of Higher Cloughfold, Rossendale, was at the home visiting her 89-year-old mum Annie Farrow.

She said: "We were only told yesterday that she had to be out by Thursday and we've been trying to find somewhere.

"It's been a terrible shock. A real bolt-out-of-the-blue and mum is really upset at having to leave." Careworker Michelle Green, 17, added: "I only work here part-time but all the staff are very attached. It's bad enough for us but they are losing their home and family. It's very sad."

Mike Seery, receiver and partner in KPMG, said the firm did offer to keep the home open in the short term but followed Lancashire County Council's advice that it would only cause additional disruption.

Coun Clifford, whose group oversaw the successful closure and removal of patients from Burnley's Marsden and Bank Hall hospitals when they closed, said Lancashire social services were over-anxious to move patients to fill empty places at its local-authority run homes and called on Rossendale MP Janet Anderson to intervene.

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