An award-winning North East care home provider has unveiled a state of the art facility overlooking Newcastle racecourse, following a £6.5m investment…

Melton House, Melton Park, Gosforth, is the latest addition to the portfolio of homes owned and operated by Prestwick Care, a division of the privately-owned, Newcastle-based Malhotra Group PLC.

Business leaders and health professionals were among those invited to watch group chairman Meenu Malhotra officially open Melton House, which is due to welcome its first residents within days.

They were then given a tour of the 67-bedroom home, which is aimed at those requiring residential care, as well as general and dementia nursing, and boasts a range of services and facilities, including in-house physiotherapy, a cinema, full laundry service and hairdressing salon.

Among the guests was Kingsley Smith OBE, chairman of Newcastle Hospital Foundation Trust, who said: “The facilities here are quite remarkable, and what is really impressive are the specialist services and nursing care for people with dementia.

“What we have here is a fantastic example of integrated care in the community, and I have been enormously impressed.”

More than 80 jobs have been created by the development of the purpose-built home, on the site of the former Northumberland Records Office.

Established in 1991, Prestwick Care provides a combination of nursing and residential care for elderly and vulnerable people in homes across the North East.

Prestwick Care’s director of care, Bunty Malhotra, said: “I am delighted to be able to introduce the eleventh home in the Prestwick family.

“It is the first in our new, Platinum range of homes and, in terms of care and quality of accommodation and facilities, I would like to think it is one of the best homes in the north of England.

“My joy has been doubled in that, by opening this facility, we are able to save 50 jobs being lost as a result of the imminent closure of a nearby care home.

“And, most importantly, we will be able to provide the continuity of care for that home’s elderly and vulnerable residents that is critical to their welfare.”

Building work is already underway to create the second home in Prestwick Care’s Platinum range; an 87-bedroom facility in the centre of Alnwick.

Work will also begin in the summer on a new care facility at Sunderland, with the company planning to open a further three new care facilities over the next three years.

The company is also involved in a range of other initiatives, working closely with Occupation Therapy students at Newcastle University and with Northumbria Health Care Trust on research around the therapeutic value of medication.

For further information visit www.prestwickcare.co.uk.