A TIPTON St John Care home, which forked out �75,000 on improvements only to see authorities transfer six of its residents to other homes, has blamed a registration delay for the move.

A TIPTON St John Care home, which forked out �75,000 on improvements only to see authorities transfer six of its residents to other homes, has blamed a registration delay for the move.

Devon County Council said a review of Angela Court, carried out in partnership with Devon Primary Care Trust (PCT) and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) last year, identified half a dozen residents' as having nursing care needs "beyond" that for which the residential home was officially registered to provide.

A DCC spokesman said: "The review was part of a multi agency assessment into services at the home, following concerns by the authorities about standards of care there."

"In response, the six residents were transferred before Christmas to other services nearby, with the cooperation of their families and carers, where they could receive the care they needed. The remaining 23 residents are believed to be appropriately placed."

Angela Court told the Herald that having invested heavily to upgrade its facilities to nursing standards, a delay in its re-registration as a nursing provider led to the transfers. The home is now re-registered to deliver nursing care.

Director Preyen Dewani said: "Angela Court is registered to provide care for people with dementia. We applied to be re-registered in the summer of 2008 having completed �75,000 upgrading to conform to standards of nursing, changing the fabric of the building to comply with nursing standards, installing facilities such as a nursing station and sluice room.

"Unfortunately due to CSCI resource constraints our application was delayed.

"The review in December 2008 showed there were residents who had progressed to requiring nursing needs.

"We were prevented from meeting those needs by not having the relevant registration in time from CSCI, even though we had been recruiting and continue to recruit the required nursing staff."

Mr Dewani described the transfer of the residents just before Christmas, some of whom had been at the home for as long as eight years, as "very emotional".

The DCC spokesman said an inspection by the Government run CSCI last month found that care standards had "improved since their last visit, although some improvements were recommended", and confirmed Angela Court's application to be re-registered as a care home with nursing had now been processed and agreed by the authority.