A 90-year-old man from Harrogate will perform a skydive to help buy wheelchairs at a care home where his wife lives.
Frank Ward’s wife Margie has vascular dementia and lives at Berwick Grange care home on Wetherby Road.
As Mr Ward approached his 90th birthday in November, he decided to mark it by doing something special.
The energy crisis has increased costs at the care home for heating and food and Mr Ward hopes the fundraiser will help it buy some much-needed wheelchairs for residents.
He is especially looking forward to the jump because the last time he did a skydive was in the 1950s during National Service.
Mr Ward said:
“It occurred to me that a skydive would be a nice thing to do to mark my 90th — and I could try and do some good at the same time.
“I’ve raised over £1,500 so far, that’s marvellous and will buy a lot of wheelchairs.
“If I get to 95 I might do another one!”
To donate, visit the JustGiving page.
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Many Harrogate district care homes yet to reopen to visitors
Many care homes in Harrogate have yet to recommence visits despite new government guidance.
The government issued new guidance after lockdown saying ‘care home managers are best placed to decide how visits should happen in their own setting in a way that meets the needs of their residents both individually and collectively’.
It also said it was issuing rapid covid tests to registered care homes during December for visitors to use. Each home should have enough to test up to two visitors per resident, twice a week by Christmas.
But right now many people are still unable to visit loved ones in the run-up to Christmas.
Judy Bass, from Harrogate, has only seen her father twice since March and one of those visits took place behind a window. Her father’s home is still not allowing indoor visits.
Ms Bass hoped the rapid test kits would allow her to visit but her father’s home has still not updated its guidance on visits.
She said:
“It is hard because I have no hope I will see him before Christmas and my dad loves this time of year. All the care home offers is window visits but I don’t want to be doing that because he will get upset.”
Judy said the care home probably found it “easier to say no” rather than go through the additional strain of testing, which would require visitors having to wait 30 minutes for results.
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- Planning is in place to demolish a care home on Wetherby Rd to replace it with a larger facility.
- Local health bosses say they are ready to roll out the covid vaccine across the Harrogate district.
Elsewhere in Harrogate, other care homes are planning to allow visits.
MHA a charity that runs 83 care homes in England, including Berwick Grange in Harrogate, has said it will allow visits under the new guidelines. But it has yet to receive the testing kits from government.
Allowing up to two visitors, per resident, to be tested twice a week, would significantly increase staff workload.
MHA chief executive, Sam Monaghan, said:
“It is a great step forward that the government has listened to residents and their families kept apart during the pandemic and is making tests available. But to do so without providing the resources necessary is reckless.
“To carry out the volume of tests now required in care homes, we will need at least one more administrative staff member per home. We are talking about a considerable additional workload. The effect will be that frontline staff will be even further stretched.”
Do you have a loved one living in a care home? Are you happy to talk about how the pandemic has impacted your visits? Please get in touch with us via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk
Bid to create 90-resident Harrogate care homePlans have been submitted to demolish Tate House care home on Wetherby Road and replace it with a much larger care facility.
The sight-loss charity the Royal National Institute of Blind People sold the building for £1,650,000 in June.
It is now run as a joint venture by private care home providers Angela Swift Developments, which is based in Harrogate, and Burlington Care, which operates 31 care comes in Lincolnshire and northern England.
The home, which received a ‘good’ rating in its most recent Care Quality Commission report in 2018, currently accommodates up to 39 older residents.
The proposed new building would be three storeys tall and accommodate up to 90 people.
The building, opposite Harrogate Town’s football stadium, was built in 1930 and has had several extensions.
The planning application claims the proposed development will bring up to 70 new jobs to the local community, including nurses, support workers, management and admin staff.
An artist’s impression of the proposed new care home.
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Wetherby Road has another care home, Berwick Grange, which is designed for people living with dementia.
Earlier this year, Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission to demolish the Greenfield Court care home on Wetherby Road, to eventually make way for 52 retirement apartments.
Harrogate Borough Council will consider the application in due course.