A NEW care home will now have 35 ‘intermediate care’ beds to reduce bed-blocking at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals.

Councillors have agreed to underwrite the tripling of spaces for specialist care to look after elderly Blackburn with Darwen residents from 12.

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Two floors of the scheme on the site of the former Albion Mill in Ewood, Blackburn, will now include ‘step up’ beds to provide a short-term intermediate care for people to prevent unplanned hospital or long-term care admissions.

It will also feature ‘step down’ beds to provide similar residential care for patients leaving hospital requiring support to continue their recovery so they can return home. The development by Verum Victum Healthcare will have 92 apartments: 63 with one bedroom and 29 with two aimed at over-55s when it opens next year.

In the original scheme 31 were to support dementia sufferers and 12 to provide ‘intermediate’ care.

Borough health and adult social care boss, Cllr Mustafa Ali Desai, said: “The developers are prepared to work with the council and Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group to redesign two floors of accommodation to provide modern, tailored residential intermediate care bed accommodation.

“The facility would provide individual rehabilitation suites. We also wish to provide follow-up support to help maintain people’s independence.

“Residential intermediate care is a key part of our strategy as demand on hospitals is increasing and causing a bottleneck.”

Lisa Kiernan, of Blackburn with Darwen CCG, said: “Intermediate care beds are for patients needing rehabilitation after a spell in hospital.

“They are aimed at promoting faster recovery from illness, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and supporting timely discharge.”

A spokeswoman for the East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We welcome any increase in intermediate care provision and community residential placements.”