Brendoncare’s Patron the Duchess of Edinburgh opens its new Winchester care home, St Giles View
HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh GVCO officially opened The Brendoncare Foundation’s newest care home St Giles View in Winchester. The opening took place on Tuesday 14th November.
The Duchess, who is Patron of the Winchester-based charity, unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.
During her visit to the 60 bedroom care home in Quarry Road, the Duchess, accompanied by St Giles View team members, visited residents in the three households. All are named after villages close to Winchester – Littleton, Sparsholt and Chilcomb.
In the Sparsholt dining room, she took part in decorating a cake with residents. This was to celebrate the 75th birthday of HM The King on that day.
Afternoon tea
The Duchess also joined residents from Chilcomb household for afternoon tea in St Giles View’s café. The café offers a relaxing location for people living in the care home. There, they can join other residents and their visitors for coffee, pastries or afternoon tea.
She was told how local people in the immediate area would be invited to come to participate in special activities in the care home’s community area.
Marianne Wanstall, Brendoncare’s Chief Executive, then invited the Duchess to unveil the plaque, located on the ground floor going out towards the garden.
Mrs Wanstall said afterwards: “We are delighted the Duchess could join us on such a joyous day, this also being the King’s birthday. We are thrilled she takes such a keen interest in our activities both in our seven care homes and also our network of 75 community clubs across Hampshire and Dorset.”
The care home opened in September. It is Brendoncare’s first home in Winchester City to provide dedicated dementia care as well as nursing, respite, and end of life (palliative) care.
St Giles View is equipped with state of the art care technology such as acoustic monitoring. This is a non-intrusive way of ensuring residents stay safe during the night and therefore, greatly reduces the risk of falls.
