Care home in Perth to have cinema, bar and balconies

Anew 80-bed care home being built at a former council office block in Perth will be the most spacious facility in Scotland.

Simply UK hopes to open the new facility on the site of the old Atrium building on Glover Street in April, providing much-needed nursing beds for the area.

The new facility will contain a cinema, bar area, private dining rooms, private kitchens, games room and gardens, with residents having access to their own patios and balconies.

Simply UK is also utilising new interactive technology to keep families up-to-date with their loved ones’ care, allowing them to access health information and upload photos.

Named Kincairney House, it will be the largest care home in Scotland per square metre per resident.

The home will be sectioned into eight, 10-bed small-scale areas to allow more freedom and privacy for residents.

Linda Meston, director of care at Simply UK, also believes the set-up will protect residents during the Covid-19 pandemic as certain areas can be quarantined from others without losing access to facilities.

The group is also utilising technology which keeps the air in each bedroom separate, lowering the chance of any cross-contamination.

Ms Meston said: “We’re looking at technology as being very important to what we do.

“The air of each bedroom does not mix with any other areas of the care home which works very well during Covid.”

The care boss told The Courier that the ethos of the organisation was to give residents as much space and freedom as possible.

“What we try to do is maximise choice for residents, so they can have different areas where they can choose to spend their days”, she said.

“It’s somewhere were people can live their life.”

Ms Meston told The Courier that Simply UK had no intention of pushing back its planned opening date due to Covid-19 and said demand for care home spaces was now increasing beyond expectation after a dip earlier in the pandemic.

She added that a lack of beds was a particular problem in Perth.

“It would appear that there is a dearth of nursing beds in that area,” she said.

LUXURY: The new care home being built on Glover Street. Picture by Steve Macdougall.