Mid Sussex nursing home applies for extension to provide en-suite bathrooms to six bedrooms

Dr Jay Dalmond applied, via the agent HDS Architects, to extend Oaklodge Nursing Home in Silverdale Road.

The application said: “The proposed extension is to the Western elevation, where the gable end will be brought out by approximately 2,800mm. This will make space internally to provide an en-suite bathroom to each of the six bedrooms (three on the ground floor and three on the first floor), in line with current Care Quality Commission (CQC) design requirements. This will significantly improve the rooms for the residents living in them.”

A design and access statement by HDS Architects said this would be a ‘very minor extension’.

It said the property, which was originally built in the Victorian and early Edwardian era, has been operating as a care home for years and is now home to 30 residents aged 60 to 100. It said the home is always at full capacity.

The statement said: “Current Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements are for all rooms within residential care to have en-suite facilities, identifying it as one of the easiest methods of infection control (made all the more apparent following the Covid-19 pandemic). The requirements also ask for bedrooms to have a minimum floor area of 12sqm. Currently the three rooms on each floor in this section of the building are all undersized, and without the required en-suite. Some residents have mobility issues requiring the use of wheelchairs and the existing lift. As part of the internal alterations, we also propose to create a wheelchair turning area at the end of the corridor.”

The design and access statement said the proposed extension and alterations would be sympathetic to the home’s surroundings and would complement and enhance the existing house.

The added: “The need for further older adult residential care accommodation, of higher quality, in Burgess Hill will only increase in time, due to a rising percentage of the population of retired adults nationally, which is identified as higher within the local area, and the MSDC plans to increase the amount of housing within the local vicinity. Oak Lodge Nursing Home is ideally suited to take advantage of future developments within the town.”