NHS plans to open Dover's delayed dementia village

The dementia village will be based on the site at the back of Buckland Hospital

The NHS has confirmed it still plans to open a dementia village which was delayed due to the pandemic.

The Harmonia Village was due to open in 2020 on a site at the back of Buckland Hospital in Dover, Kent.

Specialist staff were sent to work in other areas of the NHS over the last two years.

The village can support 30 people living with dementia and will enable them to live better lives within the community.

The East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, which owns the land behind Buckland Hospital, agreed to turn the unused housing site into a dementia-friendly village, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A spokesman for the trust said: "We are now working on a plan to bring the dementia village back in its intended format."

'A great shame'

During a meeting of Kent County Council's (KCC) health scrutiny committee last week, councillors called for the opening of the village.

The committee's chair, Conservative councillor Paul Bartlett, said: "We have got these assets. If we need them, we should use them."

He added: "It's a great shame, given the investment, why the dementia village is not being used."

Labour councillor Karen Constantine said: "We are talking about wanting to do better for people with dementia and their families and carers but yet here we had a facility ready to go, which we had staffed, that is now being left unused."

The Harmonia Village will have six houses and care will be available 24 hours a day

Dementia villages, pioneered in the Netherlands, have a community feel and encourage social events and preserving independence by having individual living spaces.

The site in Dover has six houses, each with en-suite bedrooms for five residents.

The NHS has yet to announce an opening date for the village.

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