Care centre respite rooms can help hospital

Mandy Silvester hoped the rooms would be useful for residents and the nearby hospital

A care centre has opened a new respite area which it said could reduce bed pressure at a nearby hospital.

Bradbury Care Centre in Whitchurch, Shropshire, is a day centre for mainly elderly people with Alzheimers and dementia-related illnesses. It has now converted an area which can cater for people staying overnight and longer.

Centre manager Mandy Silvester said each of the four rooms has an en-suite bathroom and access to a garden.

She hoped allowing centre users to remain there, rather than go elsewhere for respite, would be better for the users and their families. The beds will also be made available to the neighbouring Whitchurch Community Hospital.

Ms Silvester said the continuity of care, in a familiar environment, was important when service users had to go into respite.

"When they have to go into respite, if they're out of county sometimes family members can't visit them and it causes lots of distress to not only the service users but also the families as well," she said.

Each of the four rooms will have accessed to a newly landscaped garden

Care assistant Karen Lipman, who has been working at the centre for 15 years, said: "It'll make a big difference to the hospital because they're very short of respite places."

Pearl Clawley's sister is cared for at the care centre and she described the rooms as "absolutely beautiful, lovely, relaxing".

She said it would be "beneficial for the family to know she's safe and in familiar surroundings".