2nd September 2008
Royal Star & Garter's New Home Welcomes First Residents
It was a momentous day for The Royal Star & Garter Homes when its new care home in Solihull, West Midlands, welcomed the first residents on Thursday. The opening of the Solihull Home completes the first phase in the Charity's wide-reaching project to build new homes around the country to provide specialist care for disabled ex-Service people in the best modern surroundings. The Charity is hoping for planning consent for its second new home at Hampton Court in the near future, and will decide the location of a third new home by Christmas.
The Solihull Home has 60 bed-sitting rooms with ensuite shower, toilet and washing facilities - 45 for those requiring nursing care, and 15 rooms in a separate specially-designed unit to meet the growing need to accommodate residents with dementia. This unit, called The Roundel Wing, has been generously funded by the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.
Light and space are features of the building. Residents' bed-sitting rooms are approximately 16.5 square metres and have large and low windows to enable them to enjoy views over gardens or parkland, overhead tracking to make it easy to transfer from bed to shower room, and an electrically operated bed to maximise comfort and safety, and facilitate personal care and one-to-one therapy.
Other facilities include a large dining room, a cafe and bar, therapy and activity rooms for group activities and exercise, a library and computer area, a hair and beauty salon and a sizeable garden with a separate sensory garden, all set in beautiful and accessible surroundings next to a park.
Speaking at a lunch to welcome the staff, the Charity's Chief Executive, Lynn McDougall said: "We have provided the best possible facilities in this splendid building to care for elderly disabled ex-Service people and their spouses/widows. Sadly it is not possible to provide anything comparable in our Richmond Home which was purpose-built for us more than 80 years ago, and this is why it is so important to us that planning permission is granted for our proposed second new home at Hampton Court Station in which our current residents would benefit from similarly outstanding facilities to those enjoyed by the Solihull Home's residents".
Lynn McDougall added: "The Charity started looking for a new site in the West Midlands and in the local Richmond area at the same time, in early 2004. That we have been able to buy the land, gain planning permission, and build a new home in Solihull whilst we are still awaiting a planning outcome on the Hampton Court Station site highlights just how difficult it is to find appropriate land in the local area. In fact the Charity believes this is the only available site anywhere in the local area which meets its needs for the foreseeable future".