Firm denies cutting OAP breakfasts
A company running 110 nursing and residential homes has denied claims that it has axed cooked breakfasts for elderly residents at three loss-making homes in Wandsworth, London.
Aiden Grimes, at Battersea and Wandsworth TUC, said Four Seasons Health Care had also reduced cleaning hours at the three homes - Holybourne, Park Lodge and Longhenge - and was planning to slash staff wages and scrap allowances such as London weighting and overtime.
But Hamilton Anstead, chief executive of Four Seasons Health Care, described the breakfast allegations as "complete rubbish".
He said some residents had complained that they could not enjoy lunch because they had eaten too much breakfast, and the company had given them the choice not to have a cooked breakfast if they did not want one.
Four Seasons Health Care last week started a 30-day consultation with the 150 staff at the three homes over plans to cut their wages to £5.65 per hour.
This is a half or a third the sum paid to some staff, especially those who worked at the homes before Wandsworth Borough Council sold them, in 1994, to Crestacare. Four Seasons Health Care bought Crestacare last autumn with backing from "dormant shareholder" Alchemy.
