More than 800 NHS Greater Manchester patients in Southern Cross homes

An update for the primary care trust cluster’s board meeting this week, prepared prior to Southern Cross’s announcement last week that it would shut down and stop running homes, said: “Greater Manchester has approximately 2,135 Southern Cross care home beds that are registered with the Care Quality Commission.

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It said: “These are both residential and nursing beds. To date there are 838 patients who are either fully or partially funded by the NHS within this establishment in Greater Manchester.”

It added: “Approximately four years ago Southern Cross initiated an aggressive acquisition strategy whereby they expanded rapidly by buying failing, under-occupied care homes. To raise the capital for this expansion they sold the buildings and land to a variety of landlords.

“Unfortunately some establishments continued to have problems and occupancy rates in many of the homes remained low. This combined with the financial burden of lease agreements with an agreed automatic annual increase has left Southern Cross financially compromised. As a result it is reviewing the landlords’ agreements relating to each establishment and exploring cost savings and the viability of each home.”

Across Greater Manchester there was a total of 32 separate Southern Cross landlords, some of whom were care home providers. Other were investment companies, the document added.