The rebuilding of BaptistCare NSW/ACT’s Caloola Centre aged care home in Wagga Wagga, 452km southwest of Sydney’s CBD, is about to start.
Wagga Wagga City Council Mayor, Councillor Greg Conkey, joined Caloola resident, 86-year-old Louie de Kort, yesterday to turn the first sod alongside Rob McKee, CEO of builder Lipman, and BaptistCare NSW/ACT CEO Charles Moore and Melissa Noble, Caloola Centre Residential Manager.
The redevelopment will feature 80 one-bedroom rooms with private bathrooms. The home will be divided into five households of 16 rooms, with each household having its own family room, dining room, kitchen and multiple breakout spaces. The existing facility has 70 rooms.
A new café will provide a shared space for residents, families and visitors to connect, while the home has been designed to meet new stringent infection control benchmarks.
“Transforming aged care is as much about the focus on resident care and wellbeing as it is around how a physical building can make someone feel comfortable and at home,” said Mr Moore.
“It’s also important that buildings allow our care staff to work optimally through innovative building design, while technology continues to play a key role in functional and efficient care delivery in our home.”
BaptistCare also has a number of other sites in various stages of development.
The operator is about to open Yarra Rossa, a new aged care home in Canberra; has a major redevelopment plan for its original Carlingford site; is seeking to redevelop its George Forbes Home in Queanbeyan, 15km northeast of Canberra,; is adding a third stage to its home in Alstonville, in NSW’s Northern Rivers, and may announce plans for a vacant site in Macquarie Park, 13km northwest of Sydney’s CBD.
