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Two nursing homes to open in the west

This article is more than 12 months old

Two new nursing homes with senior care centres will open in the next two years in the western part of Singapore, adding nearly 600 beds and more than 100 daycare places.

The two nursing homes will also be designed to cater to dementia patients, by having wards in smaller clusters with decentralised day spaces and communal facilities such as living rooms to encourage interaction among residents, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press statement yesterday.

The Bukit Batok Care Home in HDB's West Rock estate will have 220 nursing home beds.

And the Senja Care Home in Senja Road in Bukit Panjang will have 350 beds and be the first nursing home here located next to a polyclinic in a 12-storey integrated healthcare facility.

Both nursing homes will also provide 60 daycare places each in the senior care centres.

They will be operated by Vanguard Healthcare, set up by MOH and MOH Holdings in 2015 to grow the development of eldercare services here.

Last year, there were 14,918 nursing home beds, 5,000 daycare places and 8,000 homecare places, said MOH.

MOH aims to expand this to 17,000 nursing home beds, 6,200 daycare places and 10,000 homecare places by 2020.

"Locating eldercare facilities such as nursing homes and senior care centres within HDB estates provides a continuum of options for our seniors, ranging from daycare to residential care in the same precinct," said the ministry.

"MOH will continue to invest in aged care services, and build more communities of care, to ensure that our seniors are well supported to age gracefully within the community, close to their loved ones."

The design of the Bukit Batok Care Home, which will open in the middle of next year, follows "A Home in a Garden" concept, which uses abundant greenery to provide a restorative living environment for seniors.

It also has features to encourage community integration, such as a fenceless boundary and a public communal plaza.

Senja Care Home, which will open at the end of 2020, will enable the sharing of community rehabilitation and physiotherapy services to support polyclinic patients and seniors as their care needs evolve.

Vanguard Healthcare currently operates three nursing homes - Pearl's Hill Care Home, Woodlands Care Home and Tampines Care Home.

The Woodlands and Tampines nursing homes are also next to senior care centres.

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