Work is to begin within weeks to turn a County Antrim hotel used to house asylum-seekers and refugees into a luxury 121-bed nursing home by the end of 2025.
Fast-growth care home provider Healthcare Ireland says construction will start on a major new multi-service home in the former Loughshore hotel in Carrickfergus before the end of October.
The move is part of a wider expansion of its services in the north, with major building works also scheduled for completion in two other homes over the next eight weeks, with the addition of new bedrooms and a conservatory at Bannview House care home in Banbridge and the extension at Blair House care home in Newtownards, adding 13 new beds across the two sites.
Healthcare Ireland (www.healthcareirelandgroup.com) says the overall investment in the three homes will be more than £20 million.
The continued roll-out of new health care provision underpins the commitment of the group to the delivery of quality residential care, delivered in partnership with the Health & Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.
Healthcare Ireland chief executive Gilbert Yates - who is one of the finalists in this year’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Ireland programme - said: “The addition of our bed provision in Newtownards and Banbridge will meet the demand for several categories of care which exist in the Southern and South Eastern Trust areas.
“The care provided includes general nursing care, general residential care, dementia nursing care, and dementia residential care.
“In Banbridge and in Newtownards, as with all of our homes, we are dedicated to providing exceptional care and support tailored to the needs of our residents and delivered by a staff team that is dedicated and committed to our residents.”
Construction work will begin shortly on the Loughshore Hotel in Carrickfergus, which will reopen as a state of the art 121-bed care home before the end of 2025. It stopped providing asylum accommodation from the end of June.
Mr Yates added: “Our Loughshore care home will be a major addition to the care home sector in the Northern Trust area. This is an exciting and challenging project, transforming what was a well-established hotel into a desirable and high-quality care home. When opened, it will be a flagship home in the Healthcare Ireland portfolio.”
