A nursing home has been ordered to improve its operations or face closure following complaints from the public.

Chief Medical Officer John Cann confirmed he had placed operating requirements on an unnamed nursing home and would be monitoring its progress before a decision is taken on whether it will remain open.

Dr. Cann refused to disclose any details about the complaints.

Earlier media reports said the inquiry was launched following a complaint of elder abuse and claimed a staff nurse had resigned because she could no longer watch the abuse.

The report also said Dr. Cann's team was looking into a "mysterious death'' at the home.

Dr. Cann said: "I can confirm that a home has been under review and that we have put requirements on the owner and operator for the continued operation of that facility.

"We have a monitoring system that monitors nursing homes, and as we identify problems we may up-grade them.'' When asked what had prompted the inquiry, he said: "It was in response to a number of things: our review, our monitoring, and complaints from members of the public.

Nursing home ordered to clean-up act "We put some requirements on the home and we will monitor it to see if they have been met, and depending on the successful completion of our requirements, the home will continue to operate or will close.'' He said there was a statutory period for compliance, but that a final decision regarding closure of a home would be taken by the Health Minister Nelson Bascome.

Mr. Bascome said yesterday that he had not spoken to Dr. Cann about the incident so he could not comment.

Shadow Health Minister Kim Young said: "Government passed legislation last year to require nursing and rest homes to register, but they never brought forward the regulations that provide the standard that homes must reach to be registered.

"The importance of these regulations and standards cannot be under-estimated.

"The rest and nursing homes have to know what standards they have got to reach to be registered. Government haven't come out with these yet, but they are so important these days.''