PROBLEMS in recruiting and retaining nursing and care staff will result in the closure of Hindhead’s Manormead Nursing Home for retired priests next March.

The 33-bed high-care residential facility owned by the Church of England Pensions Board, includes 14 beds for people with dementia, who require round-the-clock staffing.

Board chairman Dr Jonathan Spencer said it had been a “heart-breaking” decision. He said: “After more than 60 years of the Pensions Board providing care and nursing at Manormead, this has been a heart-breaking decision to make.

“However the safety and well-being of our residents is paramount, and we will not compromise that in any way.

“We have always provided a very high standard of care and support to everyone in our nursing home. But over the last couple of years we have found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain nursing and care staff, and we are now reaching the point where we will be unable to staff the home in a way which meets the needs of our residents and minimises the risks to them and others.

“We continue to protect the safety and well-being of residents by supplementing our staff with agency nurses and carers, but our increasing reliance on agency staff is not sustainable in the longer term.

“We know this is a very difficult time for our residents and their families. We will work very closely with each of them over the coming months as they choose where to move to.

“We will then do all we can to ensure that their moves to new homes are as smooth as possible.

“This will be a carefully managed process, with the home finally closing by March 31, 2017. The closure is of the nursing home only – not the pension board’s supported housing on the same site at Manormead, nor any of the other six supported-housing schemes around the country.

“Our key priority is the ongoing and successful relocation of our approximately 30 residents. We continue to be in close and fruitful discussions with residents, their families and staff during these four months leading up to closure.”

About 40 members of staff are expected to lose their jobs when the home closes. Each resident of Manormead’s high-care wings has been assigned an advocate to help find alternative accommodation.