A proposal to close a Finsbury Park nursing home could end up killing residents, a meeting has been told.

In March inspectors rated Osborne Grove Nursing Home inadequate after finding 16 out of 19 residents had not had a bath since the Care Quality Commission’s last visit three months earlier.

Inspectors were also forced to ask staff to seek urgent treatment for a pensioner suffering severe constipation at the home.

Since the inspection Haringey Council – which runs the home in Tollington Park on Islington’s border – has proposed to close the centre. It received four enforcement warnings for breaching legal requirements and its own dissatisfaction over the pace of improvements, in spite of an overhaul of the management team.

Speaking at the first public consultation on the proposal agreed by Haringey in June, volunteer Lauritz Hansen Bay warned the council: “If you move residents from here the shock will kill them. How do you prevent that from happening?”

Acknowledging the council was aware of the risk, cabinet member for adult social care Cllr Bernice Vanier said: “The decision has not been arrived at easily. But standards have fallen. That is a tremendous concern.”

Director for adult social services Beverley Tarka added: “We do not see the CQC rating as a death sentence.”

Accusing the council of not taking responsibility for its failure to turn the home’s fortunes around, Save Autism Services Haringey campaigner Mary Langan said an assurance Haringey wanted to see a care facility remain on the site was “not much of a guarantee.”

Ms Langan then urged the council to reveal exactly where residents would be transferred to and be assured of safe, good quality care.

In response Cllr Vanier refused to accept the council had failed to take responsibility for failings at the home, which the CQC is expected to report on again in three weeks’ time.

However, Ms Langan replied the closure proposal was tantamount to failure: “There’s no precise information about where people will go. People moved in these circumstances will die. You can’t get higher stakes than that.”

The next consultation at the home is 5pm on September 7.