A NEW specialist facility to support hospital patients has been opened by the borough council.
The facility — at Suffolk Lodge, a residential care home in Wokingham — will provide residents leaving hospital with the chance to have a period of assessment and reablement before returning home.
The Oak Wing, which can support up to eight Wokingham residents at a time, provides a specialist team incorporating therapists, trained support staff, reablement assistants, social workers and health colleagues, who work in partnership to facilitate the independence of the resident and their desired outcomes.
Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services said: “The Oak Wing provides a safe environment where important decisions about peoples’ long term care can be carefully assessed and considered, allowing the resident to avoid feeling pressurised to make a quick decision about their future without having time to consider all their options.
“The Oak Wing has played a vital role in significantly reducing the number of discharge delays due to social care needs.
“To date, 38 residents have used the facility with 29 of them being able to return home”.
This service is also available to those in the community in crisis, and will offer additional capacity for emergency or planned respite for carers.
The Oak Wing has a communal kitchen, and living area, and adapted bathroom with a range of equipment and technology enabled care to help residents trial and relearn new ways of managing their activities of daily living.
