Work is progressing on an integrated hospital/care home that will include a respite facility in Highland Perthshire.
The development of a four-bed hospital unit in one of the empty wings of Dalweem Care Home in Aberfeldy is “well under way.”
Perth and Kinross Council want to bring services previously supplied at Aberfeldy Community Hospital and Dalweem together.
The local authority says the respite unit would be created in the other empty wing of Dalweem to provide planned respite, “urgently needed” step-up and support prior to patients returning home after hospital admission.
A report written by John Gilruth, Perth and Kinross Council’s director of housing and community care, reveals negotiations are continuing with the Care Inspectorate and Health Care Improvement Scotland on the “exact designation” of the hospital wing.
He writes: “This is in the knowledge that this will directly impact upon the extent to which the care and nursing staff can provide a truly integrated health and social care facility.
“Our ambition remains that of a centre providing nursing and residential care with both an in-reach and outreach function for other community services.”
He said the project had been “complex … but we are confident that the vast majority of functions discharged within the Aberfeldy Community Hospital can be discharged within Dalweem without compromising the wider ambition for this centre.”
Mr Gilruth’s report, which will be discussed by members of Perth and Kinross Council’s housing and health committee on Wednesday, states work is now “well under way” towards the refurbishment of two wings designed for 16 residential care placements at Dalweem.
He adds: “The next stage of the action plan will involve calling the staff from Dalweem and the community hospital together for the first of what will be a series of staff development sessions in readiness for completion of the project in September.
“There are reputational risks for the council should, for any reason, the whole project not be completed as planned and within timescale.”