December 21, 2010 11.01 am This story is over 159 months old

Park View care home listed for closure

Replaced: The Park View care home in Lincoln is listed for closure, with other companies taking over care for the patients there.

The Park View care home in Lincoln, run by the Lincolnshire County Council, has been shortlisted for closure along with four other care homes in the county.

The proposal comes as the County Council is preparing to reform its adult social care services structure at the eight care homes the authority owns and manages.

Park View care home, on St Botolph’s Crescent, Lincoln, is proposed to close along with The Cedars in Gainsborough, Ingelow Manor in Boston, Halmer Grange in Spalding and Crowtree House in Louth.

This is claimed to save the council £2million over the next two years, and around 220 jobs will be lost in the process.

The Lincoln care home currently provides 21 beds for dementia care and 70 day care sessions per week.

The council expects the future requirements for the care home to change to 10 intermediate care beds, 10 for respite care and 69 day care places.

But by closing down Park View, the County Council is looking to outsource the requirements for the house to external contractors, which are claimed to be cheaper.

Currently, the council reports that is pursuing discussions to award Primelife with a contract for provision of 10 respite care beds.

Age Concern Lincoln is also listed to be awarded the day care contract for the 69 places needed from Park View.

The service will then move to personal budget arrangements to ‘spot purchase’ day and respite care where they want in the county.

In its proposal, the County Council believes it will be able to move to new contracts and close the five care homes listed by September 2011.

The council could then look for a suitable location to serve Lincoln and south of West Lindsey area with a new dementia care centre, possibly at Linelands, Nettleham.

Carolyn Kus, Assistant Director for Adult Social Care at the County Council insisted that the authority will continue to provide these services, albeit in a different way.

“The current cost of in-house provision is £990 per week; the current cost in the independent sector is around £500 per week,” Kus explained.

Read the full report [PDF]