LOUTH'S new £6-million Wolds Care Centre will be open to take its first clients next month.
The new care home on the site of the former Lord Tennyson pub has created 75 new full-time and part-time jobs and at the end of this month, owners, Bluebrick Health Care, will host an open day for members of the public.
As reported, the three-storey care centre – which will be home to 64 residents – has four wings, each named after Louth area villages, Calcethorpe, Biscathorpe, Elkington and Wykeham, near Ludford.
All bedrooms are single, spacious, each with its own en suite wet room and wi-fi, TV/DVD player, nurse call, smoke detector and thermostatically controlled radiators.
Chief executive officer Les Chaplin said the demand for care for the elderly and families with a loved-one suffering from dementia is due to increase.
He also said he believed there was currently insufficient good dementia care in the Louth area.
As reported, health officials expect the number of people living with dementia to increase fivefold in the next ten years.
In North East Lincolnshire there are expected to be 3,000 people needing specialist care.
More than 10 per cent of the population of the Louth area is over the age of 75 and its population is due to increase from 17,000 to 25,000 over the next five years, with the number of those aged over 85 increasing substantially. Mr Chaplin said with the innovative design of the building, people's dignity, privacy, choice and the respect they deserve can be more easily delivered than in older, more dated environments.
He added: "The Wolds Care Centre can provide a home for life within its specialist nursing, residential and dementia care units. Respite and day care are also available.
"Blue Brick Healthcare recognise that the needs of people change and develop, and it's people that the Wolds puts at the heart of its care services, ensuring that the changing and developing needs of people that use its services are met, through a qualified, highly trained and experienced staff team, in an innovative environment designed around the requirements of the people who use our services."
Mr Chaplin said the new home, with its iconic building at the northern gateway to Louth, would also be "a welcome asset to the town" – estimating the building and associated jobs would pump around £900,000 into the local economy each year.
Wolds' four specialist units are designed around a community hub which includes a cafe, garden room, cinema, hair and beauty salon.
There is also an activities room and exercise room in which fitness instructors will lead exercise sessions.
The community hub will be able to accommodate luncheon clubs for local groups and charities and will also be available for local community use.
The care home's library will have the theme of space and be named after Louth's famous astronaut son, Dr Michael Foale.
Find out more
Keep reading your Grimsby Telegraph for details of the open day, which have yet to be announced.
