The new owners of a care home have hiked their fees by more than 30% - an increase of nearly £200 a week.
The rise at Tan y Bryn Care Home, in Craig y Don, Llandudno has been labelled “scandalous” by the relative of a resident.
But the owner Bhusan Ramnath has defended the increase, saying he has “invested heavily” on improving standards, including employing more staff and increasing the food budget threefold.
The fees were increased on April 1, prompting the son of a resident, who asked to remain anonymous, to contact the Daily Post.
He said: “My mother’s current fee is £571 and this has increased to £763 a week - an increase of £192 a week which is over a 33.5% rise.
“The justification given was ‘ever increasing costs’ including contribution to paying living wage (4.5%!) and pension costs but there was an increase of 8% last year to offset these.
“Whilst I acknowledge the pressures on funding the elderly, such a huge hike in fees is scandalous."
But Mr Ramnath said the rise was entirely justified: “Since the short time of taking on Tan y Bryn we have already invested heavily by installing a new state of the art addressable fire alarm system, increased the width of the front stone wall gates for fire engines as this was previously too narrow for them to gain access.
“This was all done to give us peace of mind for the safety of our residents, we have doubled the number of staff on duty at nights to further enhance the ability to meet care needs, increased the food budget by a multiple of three, implemented an extensive and thorough training programme for all staff as well as many other improvements to the service and plan many more.
“All of these changes have been made to support the high standard of care that Tan y Bryn has been providing for many years and that we look to improve upon going forward.”
“With regards to fees, we have taken them to market norms within the local area, reflecting the needs of residents as when the service was taken over it was underfunded, we are very much excited about the future,” Mr Ramnath added.
Mario Kreft MBE, who chairs Care Forum Wales has said care homes across the country are in crisis because living wage increases saw costs rise 30% while funding is being squeezed by public sector cuts. The region has already seen many homes close over the past 12 months.
But the resident’s son remained unimpressed with the hike: “Such a fee increase will clearly have an impact on local adult social service budgets which are already stretched.
“My mother is self funding but she has not had a 33% increase in her pension to counteract the whopping rise.
“Such rises cannot be justified and hit the oldest and the most frail in our community.”
The relative admitted he hadn’t shared the fee increase with his mother as it would cause “great worry for her”.
“It would be difficult to move her as she is generally happy there,” he explained.
A recent report Care Inspectorate Wales gave the home a positive report.
According to a Which survey, the average weekly cost of a room in a residential home in 20167-17 was £566. The average for a nursing home was £769.
