Plans to replace Cummal Mooar residential home scrapped

Home to close in next two years - no 'immediate redundancies' says Manx Care

Cummal Mooar residential home in Ramsey will be closed within the next two years – and plans to construct a replacement have been shelved. 

Manx Care says it will work with the residents, and their families, to ensure they’re moved to appropriate alternative accommodation. 

The health body says there will be a facility in the north in the coming years but it’s likely that Cummal Mooar will be closed before this becomes available. 

It adds that there will be no ‘immediate redundancies’. 

The building of a replacement facility was approved by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2018 – it was due to be constructed on land at the Cooil Ny Marrey site on Waterloo Road. 

Plans for it were submitted in January last year - at that stage it was predicted to cost £12.75 million.

Manx Care says the decision not to go ahead is due to the ‘reduced demand for residential care’ and a need to review ‘long-term needs of services’ in the north.

It’s also blamed a ‘significant increase in construction costs’ adding the most recent estimate for the project has risen to more than £13 million – double the initial estimate. 

Cummal Mooar, which has 46 beds, opened in 1981 and is one of three centres, run by Manx Care, which provides residential care for older people.

Due to its age the Queen's Promenade facility has been deemed not ‘entirely fit for purpose’. 

Manx Care is now claiming that analysis of the ‘future direction of residential care’ shows that facilities like this will not be ‘so widely required’ in the future.

Instead it claims social work staff will aim to support people in their own homes through a ‘Home First’ approach so that people are not ‘prematurely accommodated in long term care’. 

It adds that it will engage with colleagues, residents and their families, and the public to plan for the future stating: “There will be a facility in the north in the coming years but we cannot currently confirm what this will look like as we need to listen to the views of local people.” 

Staff have been made aware of the change to previous plans.

Manx Radio understands that residents and their families have been invited to a meeting at the facility on Wednesday, 23 August. 

Manx Radio has invited Manx Care to put forward a spokesperson for comment - it has declined to do so.