THE shock of having to move will kill residents of a failed Roxburgh Park nursing home, staff say.

Cleaning supervisor at Bridgewater Aged Care home, Lisa McColl, said her 90-year-old father-in-law, who lives at the home, would die if he was moved.

Gallery: Residents and staff react

``The Federal Government should put a big death notice in the paper under the name Bridgewater ``because they are prepared to kill off all high-needs residents,’’ she said.

Bridgewater Aged Care home residents and their families were told last night that the Federal Government had withdrawn its funding after administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to sell the home within five months.

Administrators told the Department of Health and Ageing on Friday night that a possible buyer was trying to secure finance. But they did not meet the department’s deadline of 5pm yesterday.

Department spokeswoman Kay McNiece said the 81 remaining residents would be moved within 10km of the facility.

Personal care assistant Kim Skid-More-Loewe said the decision to close the facility had broken her heart. She said the 50 high-care residents at the home would simply give up.

``A lot of them don’t have family and they believe that us as nurses are their family,’’ she said.

``They want to see out their final days here under our care’’.

Administrator Stephen Longley said it was a disappointing outcome for everyone.

``We were working to achieve the sale by close of business yesterday but were unable to demonstrate that there was sufficient funding to continue to operate for another month, which was the realistic timeframe needed to complete the proposed sale,’’ he said.

Mr Longley said 45 separate parties under a strata title arrangement would have had to have agreed to a sale.

``The complexity of these negotiations meant the deal could not be struck before the deadline,” he said.

Mr Longley said a creditors meeting would be called early next month to place Vitality Care Commissioning Pty Ltd and Vitality Care Operations Pty Ltd into liquidation.

This would allow residents to refund accommodation bonds and staff to access the Federal Government’s funding for leave and redundancy entitlements. However, it would not cover around $500,000 in unpaid superannuation contributions owing to current and former staff.

Australian Nursing Federation Victorian assistant secretary Yvonne Chaperon said staff were very angry and upset.

She said nurses had been accosted in the street by angry families and strata title holders.

``They don’t understand that the nurses have nothing to do with the mismanagement,’’ Ms Chaperon said.

``The staff and residents are all victims here’’.

Ms Chaperon called on the owners to pay entitlements owed to nursing staff.

Vitality Care’s largest shareholder is Glebe Administration Board, the investment arm of the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church.

Aged care bonds and some employee entitlements would be guaranteed by Federal Government legislation if the company goes into liquidation.

The 102-bed home, owned by Vitality Care, went into administration in May with $8.5 million missing.

Ms McNiece said the department would refer Bridgewater’s former operators to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for possible breaches of the Corporations Act.

Source: Hume Leader - Kate Swan and George Ierodiaconou