A lack of space in care homes has led councillors to consider building and operating its own. Medway Council is to consider creating its own offering of residential and nursing accommodation.
In April 2024, Medway had 1,685 care home beds in total, however many residents are placed in care homes outside of the Medway Towns. The authority believes plans to create its own care home would not only ease the strain on the local service by providing more places, but also generate economic benefits through job creation and generating business for local firms.
This week, councillors of the health and adult social care (HASC) committee will consider and provide their views on four options about how to tackle the shortfall of places. The first option is to refurbish properties the council already owns into suitable sites for a care home – however the report from officers says they do not believe the council owns an appropriate property for this option.
The second option from the authority – which the report says is the most viable – is to use land currently owned by the council but which was intended for another use and construct a new building. The estimated cost of construction is £12.2 million which would need to be borrowed – therefore the full cost of the project, including construction and the debt repayments, would total £26.4m over 30 years.
Option three would be to purchase a new site for the specific reason of building a care home, which the report estimates could cost between £14m and £33m and take additional time compared to other options. The fourth and final option would be to drop the project and proceed no further, however, the increase in need for residential and nursing accommodation is expected to rise and will still cost the council regardless.
Estimates of the running costs of a care home are around £5.6m, £3m of which would be staffing costs. With an estimated 80 beds, the annual cost per resident for a year would be just under £70,000 – £1,342 per resident per week.
However, the council has also considered if the care home only had 80 per cent occupancy the annual cost per resident would rise to £87,000 – £1,677 per resident per week. The report says these costs should not rule out the proposal, as the council could offer any available beds to other authorities or pursue other options to help cover the costs.
Because the proposals are a long-term project, the administration wants robust scrutiny of the plans, so councillors on the HASC committee will consider the proposals and make comments and recommendations to the authority’s cabinet, which will then be considered at a later date. The report clarifies it is only considering the options of whether building and operating the care home are viable and suitable for Medway Council and after this consideration, a decision will be made about whether to progress with the plans.
The HASC committee will discuss the proposals today (January 16).