Official Opening of The Willows

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 28th Mar 2006

A new state-of-the-art care facility for older people officially opened in Milton Keynes this month.

The Willows Care Centre, Great Linford, provides care to 116 older people. It is run by care specialists Excelcare, a company which also runs two other existing Excelcare homes - Ernest Fryer House in Bletchley and Neath House at Neath Hill.

The Willows, which has been built on the site of the former Heathercroft Children's Centre, provides specialised care facilities for both physically and mentally frail older people.

Most of the facilities are for longer-term care placements, but the 30-place nursing home care unit includes one respite room where people can have a short period of planned nursing care from their own home and, from April, four nursing places will be used for 'step-down' care, to free up much needed beds at Milton Keynes General Hospital.

The first residents moved into The Willows last November.They were 69 former residents of two older Excelcare homes - The Coppice, Bletchley and The Green, Newport Pagnell, which have now closed.

New homes are being built on the sites of The Coppice and The Green and are due to open in early summer of 2007 as part of the Council's and Excelcare's commitment to provide modern up-to-date care facilities for older people in Milton Keynes.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Irene Henderson, cabinet member responsible for social care, said: "The Willows is a state-of-the-art care home and is part of the Council's plan to provide the best possible care for those older residents of the Borough who are not able to remain in their own homes."