Mercy Services has advised residents of its 44-bed aged care home in Singleton, 200km north of Sydney, that it is now running at half occupancy and is planning to close in only six weeks' time.
A statement from Mercy Services said, "Based on the rate of resident transfers, and that all residents have now been clinically waitlisted to other facilities, we are now planning for a closure date at the end of March 2025."We have urged all residents waitlisted for a placement elsewhere in Singleton, who haven’t yet been offered a place, to now consider their second and third preferences for an ongoing or interim home."
In October last year, the small Not For Profit announced the home would close in the first quarter of 2025, citing "years of financial difficulties due to the home’s small scale, the changes in regulations that have made it increasingly difficult for small charity-based operators to remain viable, and the ever-increasing cost of maintaining and upgrading a building that was built for a different era".
In November 2024, more than 250 people gathered at Singleton Diggers club to protest the closure of the aged care home.
According to Mercy Services' financial statement for the year to 30 June 2024, the organisation made a surplus before tax of $122,000, compared with a loss of $460,000 the previous year, and surplus of $90,000 prior to that.
Singleton, which has a population of about 24,000, has only three other aged care homes: the 34-bed Calvary Cooinda and Uniting's Elizabeth Gates and Alroy House which have a combined 60 beds.
Other homes in the region are also struggling. Last November, we wrote that the Mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire, Maurice Collison, had written to the Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler asking for "immediate and ongoing" assistance to keep open the 16-bed Gumman Place Hostel, in Merriwa, 100km northwest of Singleton.
Earlier in 2024, Wallsend Aged Care Facility in Newcastle, about 65km southeast of Singleton, also announced it would close.
Home care will transfer to Mercy Health
Mercy Services also revealed it will transfer, subject to regulatory approvals, its Home Care and Community Transport services to Mercy Health, which is governed under the same overarching structure of Mercy Ministry Companions in early May.
Mercy Health operates 30 aged care homes in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, as well as home care services, and retirement villages in Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland.
