The WW has received literally hundreds of messages and comments from people living over there in the eastern villages of Waverley. Lack of space prevents us from including all your comments on our posts.
You may have seen many posts on our various groups pertaining to the planning application by the Cranleigh Village health Trust (CVHT) for a private Care Home and block of flats. All on a small area of land behind Marks and Spencer’s car park and a small residential area of private homes?
There are many private residents against this development. At least 4,600 minimum to be exact.
Another petition has just been launched. https://.www.change.org/campaigngroup
- Where has the money gone?
- Why did land have to be swapped?
- Where is the money coming from to build the Care Home and flats if their so-called ”partner” reneges on any verbal agreement – particularly as the company in question (HC-One) is millions of pounds in debt but still paying shareholders many millions in dividends?
- This is a Care Home, the beds of which are for anyone in the county – and they won’t necessarily be free at the point of entry; the FAQs state “After initial assessment some patients will need to self pay”.
Ruth Turner
Ash Barn, Church Lane, Monyash,
Derbyshire, DE45 1JH
When I first joined Cranleigh Medical Practice as a partner in 2002 the project to build a replacement health centre and village hospital was in progress. Initially, this seemed to me like a good idea. The old health centre and the wards in the village hospital were dilapidated, and there was great support for the project from the community. Indeed, a very large amount of money was raised by CVHT from the people of Cranleigh for it. At the heart of the project was the desire to replace the community beds which were under threat and subsequently closed by NHS Surrey.
However, five years ago, whilst I was still a partner at Cranleigh Medical Practice, there was no model of care agreed for the 16 community beds in the private nursing home (which the original replacement village hospital has now turned into) and I gather that this remains the case today. In my view, this is a fatal flaw for the project because, as we always used to say, you can stick a sign on the door which says “community beds”, but if there is no model of care and no secure funding stream agreed to utilize these beds, then these are just words. In which case the plans must surely be solely for a private nursing home. The original outline planning permission was granted for a replacement village hospital, not a nursing home. I would argue that another private nursing home is not needed in Cranleigh which is already a net importer of patients requiring private nursing home care. A fact which clearly demonstrates existing oversupply.
The twists and turns in the saga of this project caused me sleepless nights whilst I was working in Cranleigh because the original idea of community beds was attractive, but the many incarnations have all had the same fundamental problem. A private nursing home can make money if it’s big enough (clearly topping up the numbers with another 16 paying patients would help this equation), but genuine free at the point of delivery community beds are a massively expensive luxury, which I suspect renders them unaffordable in this setting. To me then, this has become another commercial private nursing home project which is why I object to the plans.
A well structured article however, putting the money raised and land swap to one side, there is a requirement for more care homes across the U.K.
With an ageing population (ONS predicts a 36% growth in persons aged 85+ between 2015 and 2025), there is growing demand for care homes to meet the needs of our ageing population.
Waverley has a higher percentage of over 85 year olds (3.1%) compared to the average in England (2.3%) which makes the area a great location to meet demand.
If developments like these do not go ahead, we will end up pushing our own residents in Cranleigh to care homes further afield away from friends, family and a location they have grown up in, contributed towards and helped form the village so many of us are proud of.
We have to agree with the sentiment of your argument. However, we understand from our readers that Cranleigh is well-served with nursing homes. In fact, one such home has recently received consent to extend its premises by another 25 beds.
Obviously Surrey County Council does not agree Cranleigh, or for that fact Waverley needs more care home beds. It closed Cobgates here in Farnham and Longfields in Cranleigh which had 56 dementia beds, which were allowed to gradually deteriorate due to lack of maintenance and investment.
COVID-19 has already begun to have an impact on nursing homes across the country. They are not quite as attractive to many would-be residents as they once were.
We have heard of numerous older people looking to live in annexes with their families, astray fear for their safety in large institutions. Sadly this virus is already impacting on the way older people want to live their lives in the future. Many have been cut off from family and friends for many months, and their mental and physical health has deteriorated as a result.
Jon Verdon who was also a GP along with Ruth Turner has also lodged his objections.
Many thanks for this information – so are Cranleigh’s present GP’s supporting this venture?