New £5m care home to open

The new home has been built at a cost of £5m, creating 60 permanent jobs in the Banbridge area and catering for 80 residents with nursing or dementia nursing care needs.

Residents, staff and local dignitaries will celebrate the opening, alongside Councillor Joan Baird, a member of the council’s healthcare sub-committee, the managing director for Care Homes, Sharon Butler, and home manager, Deborah Campbell.

Care is provided in single, en-suite accommodation which is finished to high specifications. There is also a choice of lounges and dining areas, in addition to an enclosed landscape garden, with a reminiscence room in the planning stages.

Specialist dementia care will be under the supervision of the director of care and dementia services, Dr Daniel Nightingale, who is head of the Faculty of Dementia at the National Register of Hypnotherapists and specialist tutor at the National College.

He is also one of the consultants involved in the All-Party Political Group Inquiry into the use of antipsychotic medicines in nursing and care homes and more recently published the Nightingale Model of Enriched Care, as well as completing a pilot project on the use of the Montessori in Dementia Care.

Priory Care Homes already operates Ben Madigan care home in Newtownabbey and on 2nd February officially opened Cairnmartin Court in Belfast.

Last year, the company outlined plans for at least 17 homes in Northern Ireland by the end of 2012, providing around 1200 beds, 1,000 jobs and representing an investment of £50m.

Speaking during a visit to the home during its development, Upper Bann MP David Simpson said, “This is a terrific project and I welcome the Priory Group to Banbridge and thank them for their investment and their commitment to the area.

“I also want to thank The Murdock Property Group for their continued commitment to Banbridge and the local community.”

Welcoming the new facility, Councillor Jim McElroy said the new home was “badly needed” and would be very well received by the community.

“The 60 new jobs are very welcome and many local families will be pleased to see them,” he added.