The owner of a newly-refurbished care home empty for six months fears she may have to close before even opening.

Trisha Patel says she spent about £200,000 renovating the run-down property but claims she is now losing up to £15,000 a month due to a hold-up in paperwork.

That’s despite an “urgent need” for residential homes for the elderly.

The 43-year-old mum has furnished 17 bedrooms and kitted out a new kitchen and laundry room at Clarence Place Residences in Gravesend.

After meeting the rigorous requirements of the Care Quality Commission in early November, she appointed a manager and chef - both of whom she has been paying a monthly salary to keep them on board.

But she said countless attempts to get registration from Kent County Council (KCC) so she can take on referrals from the public sector have “fallen on deaf ears”.

She said while she had budgeted for an interim period, she was now losing up to £15,000 a month due to rent and running costs at the residential home in Clarence Place.

Her dilemma is all the more frustrating because conversations she and her manager Ajay Babajee have had with representatives from the NHS at Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford, and Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, indicate there is an “urgent need” to get people out of the wards to free up space for patients who need to be there.

The businesswoman, who also runs a day nursery in London, said: “Care is care, whether it’s the young or elderly.

“On the few occasions [KCC] have come back to us, we have come back with whatever was needed immediately.

“We have had difficulty in actually talking to anyone and when we did have a meeting arranged in February, it was cancelled the day before.

“We now have 17 beds unoccupied, a manager chasing people all the time and a chef with a kitchen he has never used.

“It’s shocking and I’ve been told by other care home managers, unprecedented.

“I’ve asked for a timeframe so I can make an informed, commercial decision and look at my options. But they say can’t give me one.”

Mrs Patel said having experience working in the care sector, she did her research and contacted consultants in the industry before taking on the project in February last year.

She said once up and running in a few years’ time she would consider working exclusively with the private sector but said it would be “unrealistic” and not financially viable to launch without the backing of KCC’s recognised supply list.

She said: “I feel I’m doing something wrong or missing something.

“What more can I do?

“We need a chance to prove ourselves, but after being prioritised by the CQC because of the urgent need for beds for the elderly, everything has come to an abrupt halt.

“All I want to do is provide care for those in the last years of their lives.”

Her registered manager Mr Babajee has worked in the adult care sector for 22 years and said he has never encountered “so much pressure”.

He said: “Nothing is happening, nobody is responding.

“How long will we survive? We have commitments. We have family.

“It’s not easy when money is going out and nothing is coming in.”

Chef Wojciech Zajdek accepted the job in October after working in a string of top restaurants.

With two young sons, he wanted to spend more time at home in the evenings with his family.

He said: “I was so excited, over the moon. I was ready to go, writing new menus and doing shopping lists.

“It’s very frustrating”.

Responding to KentOnline, a KCC spokesperson said: “The council has been in ongoing conversations with Mrs Patel and is awaiting the submission of required documentation to continue the application to join the Older Persons Residential and Nursing Accommodation contract.

“Clarence Place Residences is registered with the CQC as a Residential Home and is currently able to undertake privately funding residents which do not require Nursing Care.

“Once the required documentation is received from Mrs Patel, KCC will consider the application.”

However, Mrs Patel says she has completed and returned the required paperwork and is puzzled by KCC’s approach.