Twelve elderly mentally ill patients face a fortnight of uncertainty after a High Court judge's decision today that could mean the closure of the Bradford nursing home where they live.

Mr Justice Sullivan ruled that the registered Homes Tribunal was right to uphold a decision by Bradford Health Authority that Pandareebe Ruggee's name should be struck off its register of those fit to run care homes.

The decision could spell the end for Coburg House Nursing Home in Old Park Road, Idle of which she is proprietor.

But Mrs Ruggee said today that she intended to take her battle to the Court of Appeal.

The health authority's decision in May last year came after it emerged that a patient had been given wrong medicine and the home's only qualified nurse had on one occasion absented himself while on duty leaving no medical staff in attendance.

The health authority has promised that none of the 12 elderly patients will be moved if Mrs Ruggee appeals.

She said: "I am disappointed with the judge's decision. The number of residents at the home has increased and they are all happy with the standard of care. It is just a series of unfortunate circumstances and these things will never happen again. A patient was not deliberately given the wrong medication, it happened by mistake."

Mrs Ruggee had asked the judge to overturn a decision by the Registered Homes Tribunal in September this year, when it dismissed her appeal against the removal of her name from Bradford Health Authority's register of those deemed fit to run nursing homes.

Her counsel, Philip Engleman, accused the Registered Homes Tribunal of acting "irrationally" and "unreasonably" when it upheld the health authority's decision.

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