THREE-quarters of all Scottish care homes owned by crisis-hit Southern Cross have had complaints upheld in the past five years, The Herald can reveal.

Regulators have upheld multiple complaints about many centres, and nearly half of all homes have been warned about inadequate staffing levels.

The findings raise major questions over whether the company, which has 98 homes in Scotland, should be allowed to pursue a cost-cutting review involving the possible loss of 3000 jobs UK-wide, including 400 north of the Border.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon revealed last night that she would meet Jamie Buchan, chief executive of Southern Cross, on Monday to stress that the company’s problems must not affect care for the elderly.

Labour’s health and wellbeing spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said: “This is a shocking record. It is of increasing concern that if as many as 400 staff could be lost from Southern Cross care homes across Scotland that will place increasing pressure on the remaining staff and standards will start to slip substantially.”

The Herald has examined records from the Care Commission and its replacement, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS), for homes registered to both Southern Cross and its subsidiary, Ashbourne. Homes were subject to critical inspection reports, had numerous complaints upheld and enforcement orders where they appeared to break the law.

Of 79 Southern Cross homes listed, 60 had been the subject of complaints upheld or partially upheld within the past five years. Forty had been warned about understaffing. Of 19 Ashbourne homes, 13 had had complaints upheld in recent years, including complaints about understaffing at six.

Overall, 74% of the company’s 98 care services had been subject to valid complaints and 47% had been warned about understaffing.

Inspectors who recently made unannounced visits to Southern Cross establishments expressed dismay about what they had found. In a Kilmarnock home staff swore in front of residents and residents were seen “wandering around the home without focus or intervention”.

A home in Hamilton was subject to complaints about staffing levels for four consecutive years before the regulator issued an improvement notice.

Harry Donaldson, the GMB union’s regional secretary, said: “They are losing a fifth of their workforce annually. This shows they need to recruit more people to ensure the level of care and standards our elderly people expect. That such levels of complaint have been upheld shows standards are falling and that staffing levels are not at the ratio required.

“Questions have to be asked about the quality of people being recruited, levels of training and supervision and whether there are enough to meet demands.”

Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents Scotland’s private care providers, said: “SCSWIS is not going to allow them to reduce direct care staff. Each care

home will have a schedule determining the number of staff required. What matters is how the company responds to that going forward.”

He conceded if a care home had repeated complaints upheld and negative inspection findings, “that suggests something is not right”.

A spokesman for SCSWIS said Southern Cross residents deserved the highest standards of care and to be treated with dignity and respect at all times. “We will take action with any service that fails to meet expectations.”

He added: “SCSWIS’s approach is to consider the financial viability of a service in detail at the point of registration. SCSWIS operates on the basis that efforts are concentrated upon service quality.

“Significant financial issues affecting the day-to-day running of a care service would result in deterioration in service quality, and therefore such issues could be identified and then addressed by the regulator through enforcement action or closure if necessary.”

A spokeswoman for Southern Cross said its review of staffing would focus on care quality.

“While every effort will be made to minimise the number of redundancies, we believe that the changes we are proposing will improve care quality across our homes.

“We believe the plans we have announced will help us achieve even greater improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and care quality.”

Ms Sturgeon said: “I will be meeting Jamie Buchan and will reinforce the message that the financial challenges his company faces cannot be allowed to impact on the care it offers to vulnerable older people and that any changes to staffing cannot be at the expense of the quality of care.”