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Agency staff are living at a States-owned nursing home in Guernsey due to a lack of accommodation.

Health and Social Care (HSC) said staff were having to live on-site at St John's Residential 91�ȱ� as there was a lack of staff accommodation to match demand.

It added in order to deliver safe care, agency nurses were living in the home.

The situation means fewer residents can be cared for at the home at Sausmarez Park.

HSC has blamed issues with recruitment for the use of agency staff at the home.

It said: “Recruitment is challenging, as it is in all areas of health and social care, and we are therefore continuing to utilise the support of agency staff to enable us to maintain safe staffing levels whilst we attempt to recruit into permanent positions.

“There remains a lack of staff accommodation across HSC to match demand and in order to deliver safe care to the residents we do currently have some agency nurses living in the home.

“These nurses are paying rent of £125 per week, which includes one meal a day.”

HSC added: “We have welcomed some new residents into the home, but this is currently limited until we can ensure we have the safe levels of staff to provide the appropriate level of care for each resident.”

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