Clydeview Care Home, on Carmen Road, has undergone £175,000 refurbishment after the facilitiy closed last year following a Grade 1 inspection report. It reopened again in April of this year.

The December 2013 inspection was unannounced and highlighted the seriousness of concerns for residents health, safety and wellbeing, the state of the environment, and the situation with staffing, management and leadership.

A spokesman for the Care Inspectorate said the facility was graded ‘poor’ across all four quality themes.

He added: “Because of the concerns raised by that inspection we also issued a formal improvement notice in December 2013 which set out the immediate improvements we required in order to ensure the safety and well-being of residents. That improvement notice included nine areas which required immediate improvement.

“A follow-up inspection in March found that the service had made significant progress in addressing those requirements.” Now, the privately run care home is under new management with a team of eight trained nurses and six care workers – however only one resident lives in the 20-bed unit. The new manager, Jan Whitelock, took over the care home in January but believes the bad name the care home had in the past is affecting the number of referrals they currently have. She told the Advertiser: “The place had a really bad name, and we are still being judged on this despite a whole new team and a massive refurbishment.

“We are trying our best, but it is very disheartening and demoralising for everyone to have only one resident.

“The £175,000 refurbishment is only cosmetic, I understand that, but we need the chance to prove ourselves and we deserve the opportunity to be able to put the past behind us.

“We know other care homes are full or have waiting lists, yet we are sitting empty.” The Advertiser investigated the capacity of other care homes in the area and found the four homes are 98 per cent full with waiting lists.

Lochside Care home in Shandon, is full to capacity with all 35 beds taken and a waiting list, and the Argyll Care Centre is full with all 58 beds in the unit occupied.

Northwood House, on Sinclair Street, recently expanded to meet with demand and now has 20 beds with 18 residents and one waiting to be placed, they also have a waiting list of eight at the moment.

And Morar Lodge Care Home, is 98 per cent full with 29 places taken out of the 30 available, and a waiting list.

Helensburgh councillor Vivien Dance believes care homes in the area are meeting the demands of residents effectively. She said: “If demand increases as it is doing now, then I am sure this sector will respond to growing needs and we will see further care homes being developed here and this is good in that it allows people to spend their final years in the local community.

“In the meantime, we need to be vigilant that the changes coming with the integration of health and social care do not bring difficulties for the ageing population and the growing demand continues to be met. People are living longer and this is a great success story because we are better nourished, healthier, and fitter thanks to the innovations in the NHS where life enhancing interventions are now routine.” However, Councillor Aileen Morton has said that although the demographic of the area may be changing, this doesn’t mean more care homes have to be built.

She added: “I haven’t had any constituents raise concerns with me about not being able to access suitable care facilities, and the closures of Clydeview, Balvaird and Cairndhu in recent years would suggest that there isn’t a significant shortage of beds in the Helensburgh area.

“Changing demographics means that there probably will be an increasing demand for support, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to more care homes being built.”