A multi-million-pound centre of excellence for dementia care will create dozens of new jobs, developers have revealed.
Proposals for the 60-bedroom facility near Alyth, in east Perthshire, have been approved by planning chiefs.
The home is part of a wider £50 million village, earmarked for part of the old Glenisla Golf Course.
Healthcare Management Solutions (HCMS), one of the biggest companies of its kind in Britain, is working on the project with Glenisla Developments, and has released artists’ impressions of how the new facility will look.
The care home will create about 60 jobs when it opens later next year. It has been designed with input from the Care Inspectorate and the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre.
Tony Stein, chief executive at HCMS said: “This is a hugely exciting development.
“The care home will be a flagship for excellence in dementia care, providing care within a mixed residential development rather than a care/retirement village, ensuring that residents receive the highest quality care and support, whilst still remaining part of the wider community.
“We are proud to have been retained as both consultants during the initial design and to commission and ultimately provide management services to the care home and domiciliary care business.”
A report commissioned by HCMS showed strong demand for the care home and assisted living facilities in Perth and Kinross. It highlighted a need for an extra 50 care home beds in the area, every year for the next 10 years.
Martin Quirke of Stirling University’s dementia centre said: “It is nationally recognised that the shortage of residential care and the poor quality of existing housing, is contributing significantly to NHS and local authority costs, a phenomenon that is much wider and more complex than the “bed blocking” often referred to.
“We believe that the mix of housing and residential care places to be provided in the proposed scheme would help address challenges that are becoming increasingly important for the Perth and Kinross area, and Scotland as a whole.”
Pitcrocknie Village will be built across 60 acres of the 140-acre golf course site. The wider proposals include 200 houses, a hotel and businesses.
The care home – which is about 10 bedrooms bigger than originally planned – will be the first phase of construction.
The course was sold to developers in 2016, but it was later reopened as a nine-hole course by Alyth Golf Club.
