A NURSING home owner says it would be "financial suicide" to take new patients at the level of funding offered by social services.

Derek Jones, owner of Henwick Grange Nursing Home in Hallow, Worcester, said the Government had also hit him with a huge increase in the cost of registering the home.

English Care, a new national organisation set up to champion private sector care homes, said many homes could refuse to take new patients because of low payment rates.

But Mr Jones said he was already unable to accept patients funded solely by Worcestershire County Council's social services.

"I won't take them at their level of funding," he said. "It's financial suicide to do so.

"Most homes in the area are doing the same."

Social services currently pays nursing homes £402 a week per patient. But Mr Jones and other homeowners say they need £460 a week to provide a quality service.

Nursing homes in the county were given a £19 per patient per week funding increase this financial year.

Complex needs

However, Mr Jones said the funding for patients with complex needs only increased by 2.1 per cent, taking the funding from £500 to £510.

A further blow followed when the Government increased the National Care Standards Commission registration fee by 20 per cent this year.

Mr Jones said the fee had increased by £500 to £3,000 a year - money that would be used to pay for care home inspections.

He said the letter he received telling him of the increase said it would be "covered by generous increases in funding from local government."

"They keep on saying we are getting generous increases from social services," said Mr Jones.

"We just get treated abysmally. They don't negotiate with us - they call it negotiation, but I call it dictation."

Coun Liz Eyre, Worcestershire County Council's cabinet member for social services, said she sympathised with care home owners but said it would cost the council millions to give them what they wanted.

"They have the same cost pressures that we have," she said. "We're trying to come up with a long term strategy to give them more money.

"We're looking at commissioning services, so more money goes where there is quality."