Westbank Care Home to close
The Aberdeenshire Integration Joint Board (IJB) today (28/06/2024), agreed to the closure of Westbank Care Home in Oldmeldrum.
The Aberdeenshire IJB needs to make over £20m of savings this financial year to achieve a balanced budget position. At the March 2024 IJB budget setting meeting it was agreed that as part of the budget savings proposals officers would identify a Care Home for closure.
Officers for the Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership (AHSCP) have since undertaken an Options Appraisal review of the in-house Care Home estate with a view to recommending a home for closure.
The report presented to the IJB today set out the Options Appraisal process, areas considered and the outcome for Westbank to be recommended for closure.
Westbank Care Home was first opened in 1965 and is no longer considered up to modern care home standards and requires significant levels of investment over the coming years.
The home was originally scheduled for closure following the opening of the purpose built Bennachie View Care Home, Inverurie, in 2015. That home currently has a mothballed 12 bed ‘household’ which will be supported to re-open by the re-deployment of staff from Westbank Care Home. This will allow some residents from Westbank to transfer to Bennachie View.
Chair of the Aberdeenshire IJB, John Tomlinson, said: “This has not been an easy decision for the IJB to make and we have heard from various speakers today about the value they place on the care delivered at Westbank Care Home.
“We too value the work that staff have done over many years to care for residents at Westbank and I wish to be absolutely clear that this decision in no way reflects on the management or staff at the home.
“We are in a very challenging financial position and the outlook over the medium term is no brighter and as a result we have to ensure that we have a laser focus on ensuring that the services the Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership deliver are sustainable and fit for the future.
“We know that our older population will increase across Aberdeenshire and that by taking the difficult decisions now around our Care Home provision we will ensure the sustainability of our in-house provision into the future.”
Vice Chair of the Integration Joint Board, Cllr Anne Stirling, said: “I appreciate that this is not the news that residents and families would wish to hear, and we have been assured that our local teams will be working very closely and sensitively with residents and families as they identify and move to new homes.
“I would also like to echo what John has said and pay tribute to the staff at the home who continue to deliver excellent care each and every day.
“We have been assured that our Human Resource teams will work closely with all of the staff impacted and work to find them new jobs within the AHSCP.”
Work to close the home and find suitable new accommodation for all residents will now begin and teams will work closely with staff, residents and families to ensure that residents are supported in to new homes.