New care home puts residents first

Inch View Care Home on Gilmerton Road has been built on the site of the former Kings Inch school.

It is the fourth new care home to be commissioned by the Council since 2007. The residents, who came from the former Balmwell House and Craigour care homes, moved in earlier in the year.

Pupils from neighbouring Liberton Primary School will be reciting a special poem and singing songs at the opening ceremony. They were also involved in naming the new home after researching the history of the area. They produced a short list of potential names which were then voted on by residents, staff and pupils.

Inch View has many unique features, including infra red sensors in bedrooms to detect if residents get up unexpectedly during the night, rainwater harvested on the roof and then used to heat the home, and its own library and hairdressing room.

Residents were also consulted at length over the design of the new building which is sub-divided into smaller group living units of 15 bedrooms, each with their own sitting and dining areas.  Bedrooms all have en-suite shower rooms and are of a good size - above the national standards for care homes.

Councillor Norman Work, Vice Convener for Health and Social Care at the City of Edinburgh Council, said this was the fourth new purpose built care home that the council has opened in the last four years.

He said: "These state of the art homes were designed in consultation with service users and the design sets the standard for other local authorities to follow.

"I have been very impressed with the facilities when at the home, which will give residents the opportunity to stay in accommodation which is more suitable to their needs, and gives them a better standard of living.

"Improvement of our care homes is part of our Live Well in Later Life 10 year plan for older people's services, which aims to provide a wide range of quality care and support, to meet older people's needs both in their own homes and in carefully designed homes." 

Resident John Deery said: "I like Inch View because of the atmosphere is nice, the activity room is big and has a snooker table."

Bob Anderson, Chair of the Edinburgh Community Health Partnership, said: "We welcome the development of this new care home and the benefits it will bring to the local community. This new development will help to improve the quality of life for the residents living in and around the Liberton and Gilmerton area."

Neil McFarlane is the regional director of GRAHAM Construction, the company which built Inch View.

He said: "This is the third care home GRAHAM has delivered in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and the Live Well in Later Life strategy. We are tremendously proud to be playing our part in this ongoing project delivering comfortable, modern, fit-for-purpose accommodation for residents around the capital.

"The high specification design and bespoke features at Inch View presented some interesting challenges for the project team, and overcoming these has bolstered our expertise and further equipped GRAHAM to deliver excellent facilities for the people of Edinburgh.

"We are looking forward to building on this relationship with the Council and work will soon be under way at Drumbrae, the next state-of-the-art care home in the portfolio."

The new care home is part of Edinburgh's strategy, and demonstrates the commitment to offering high quality residential care for older people in the city and giving them a home for life. The home is specially designed to be beneficial in providing a caring and supportive service for older people so they can enjoy a better quality of life.

Construction work is expected to start at Drumbrae later in the year.