Care home plan expanded to include extra support

A proposed tech park in Chatham will be turned into a care home, according to Medway Council plans

Plans for a council to build and run its own £37m care home have been expanded.

Medway Council's bid to build and operate a care home on the southern site of Innovation Park Medway (IPM) in Chatham could see the whole of the site dedicated to elderly care, including complementary services, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Initial proposals for the £60m business park which had hoped to attract big tech firms were scrapped in February 2024 while the authority decided how to proceed with the project.

In March, the Labour cabinet unveiled it was to change the southern section of the site and construct and operate a care home there instead.

A feasibility report shows plans to expand the footprint of the care home to cover 50% of the southern site and there is a possibility the rest will be used for complementary services related to care home residents.

In total, the care home would have 80 beds, with 40 for a residential/nursing unit for older people living with dementia, and 40 for a respite unit to support people to move home from hospital and to provide respite for carers.

If given the go-ahead, the scheme is to be allocated £37m to see it through all stages up to use.

Once built, estimates of the annual running costs of a care home are around £5.6m, £3m of which would be staffing costs.

If at full capacity, the annual cost per resident for a year would be just under £70,000 or £1,342 per resident per week.

In April 2024, Medway had 1,685 care home beds in total. However, many residents are placed in care homes outside of the Medway Towns.

On 29 July, the cabinet will discuss the latest stage of the plans which follow the results of a feasibility assessment of the project.