A CARE home in Poole is closing next month after “uncertainty over Brexit” led to difficulties recruiting qualified nursing staff, its owner said.

More than 30 elderly residents will have to leave Avonwood Manor Nursing Home in Nelson Road when it shuts on November 30.

Beritaz Care, which has owned the home since 2016, says it is is working with Poole council and social services to ‘seamlessly transfer’ residents to Windsor Court in Bournemouth and other facilities in Hampshire and Surrey.

A spokesperson for Beritaz Care said the care home had been “dependent on unsustainable levels of agency staffing over the past two years, which is uneconomical and also has an adverse effect on the quality and continuity of care for the residents”.

The care home is also “no longer deemed suitable for offering the levels of nursing care its high dependency residents require”, the spokesperson added.

Beritaz Care has been unable to find new proprietors to keep the home running.

Chief executive and owner Kumar Gnanakumar said “uncertainty over Brexit has presented us with a double-edged sword”.

“Recruiting suitably qualified staff, particularly nursing staff, from the EU is even more difficult now and we are heavily reliant on agency staff. In addition, we’ve recently found that the sentiments of banks and investors have changed towards care facilities that require extensive operational and premises turnaround, and they are now increasingly reluctant to lend money to care home owners for these purposes.

“The ongoing welfare of our residents is paramount and we want to make sure there is minimum disruption to their daily routine in the move to suitable alternative accommodation. We will be working with the Borough of Poole and social services throughout the transition period to help families find alternative accommodation for their loved ones where required, and to ensure the transfers run as smoothly as possible. We have started the consultation process with the staff team and will endeavour to deploy as many staff as possible in our other facilities.”

He added Beritaz Care’s other care homes and nursing homes were not affected by any of the issues affecting Avonwood Manor due to their “substantial modernisation in recent years”.