DOUBLE the beds and double the staff – one Bathurst aged care facility has big things planned for the future.
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Opal Aged Care in Kelso is set to relocate to a new purpose-built facility in Stanley Street, between Hope and Peel streets.
The new $35 million facility is expected to create more than 100 jobs during construction and 75 new aged care jobs once it opens.
Opal acting managing director Sean Bilton said plans for the new site have been five years in the making and it was time for the Kelso facility to be replaced.
“The [Kelso] facility is well past its use-by date and needs to be replaced,” he said.
The Kelso site currently has a 75-bed capacity, while the new site will have up to 164 beds, depending on room configurations.
We want to do more than be a bulk-standard aged care facility.
- Opal Aged Care acting managing director Sean Bilton
“There will be a 16-bed specialist dementia unit,” Mr Bilton said.
Aged care staff numbers will also increase once the Stanley Street site opens in March/April 2019.
All 75 staff at the Kelso facility will be brought over to the new site, and Mr Bilton said there will be a need for an additional 75 aged care staff once opened.
The new home will provide a range of singe rooms with ensuites, companion rooms, living and dining areas, outdoor spaces, a hairdressing salon and a cafe.
“We want to do more than be a bulk-standard aged care facility,” Mr Bilton said.
“What staff do in our homes is incredibly hard work … they do such an amazing job in helping to take the place of loved ones.”
The development application for the new site shows the property will be set back off the road with a 46-bay car park, main driveway and landscape works to front Stanley Street.
The two-storey building will have four wings which feature bedrooms, as well as a main foyer area with a reception, salon, cafe, dining area, lounge, laundry, kitchen and terrace.
Extensive landscaping will include deciduous trees, boundary hedge plantings, mixed native shrubs, raised planters, grassed areas, timber decks and a pergola.
Opal has owned and operated the Kelso aged care home for 38 years.
Mr Bilton said Opal Aged Care considers western NSW as one of it’s “key regions” and already has sites in Orange, Dubbo, Mudgee, Springwood and Narrandera.