Park House
Nursing Home
Peterborough
Park House overlooks the tranquillity of Old Peterborough Park and yet is within
easy reach of the Cathedral and the city facilities. Easily accessed by road and by
rail, Park House is a purpose-built registered nursing home for the elderly.
We can accommodate up to 52 residents. Recently we have won prestigious
national awards for outstanding care and for our care environment.
We are recognised as having built up, and as continuing to grow, a secure
reputation for consistency and excellence, not only for our nursing care (which
covers medical, palliative and dementia care of the elderly) but also in the various
other services which support our residents, such as housekeeping, catering,
activities and entertainment.
If you are looking for a nursing home, for yourself or a loved one, do come and see
the respectful vitality and heartfelt kindness which animate Park House and which,
we believe, make us not so much a special Home as a special community of homes.
Our care service
We provide nursing care for people with palliative or sub-acute medical needs, and
for those with dementia. Park House is registered by the Care Quality Commission
under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as a care home for the elderly with
nursing.
We are proud of our stable long service staff roll, whom we train and encourage to
observe and thereby develop understanding, so as to assist discreetly our
individual residents in their various needs (and dare we say it idiosyncrasies). All
care is, of course, under the shift leadership of our registered nursing staff,
directed by Matron and Deputy Matron (both registered nurses) with support and
medical assistance from general practitioners as required.
Whilst, in abstract, it is fair to say no one wants to live in a nursing home, we at
Park House work towards ensuring that when an elderly person's medical
condition and frailty necessitate such a move of their home, we are the obvious
Home of choice because we can clearly be seen as "home from home", albeit
home now with nursing.
Our accommodation is level throughout, arranged over a ground and first floor and
interconnected by wide, safe corridors and a large passenger lift (as well as, of
course, by stairs).
Dining
Whatever one's age, young, old or somewhere in-between, we all want food to be one of
the pleasures of our day - and so our catering staff have this imperative constantly in
mind in all they do.
Our procurement policies focus on the
quality end of the market; we use
proprietary brands almost throughout,
fresh fruit and vegetables from a local
independent supplier, meats from
local prize-winning butchers and fresh
fish from the market. But we go much
further than this to delight first the eye
and then the tummy!
As an experienced nursing home management, we understand that our residents will
have different dietary needs, capabilities and appetites and so we ensure each of these
key features is individually addressed in all meals.
Individual tolerances and preferences are scrupulously identified, kept up-to-date and
active, whilst different crockery, cutlery and levels of staff assistance at meal times ensure
the most appropriate provision and support for
each individual. Too much on one's plate can
be as off-putting as too little is upsetting, and
portion sizes are calibrated to individual needs
and choices, whilst "more" is always available.
We provide linen table cloths and napkins,
and are pleased always to have flowers on the
dining tables and a basket of fresh fruit
available for access as residents wish (with
staff assistance as required, of course).
At least once a month, Head Cook organises
a special feature lunch, with an ethnic or
celebratory "slant", and this adds delightful
novelty and surprise to the already delectable
and varied menu range.
Staffing
The Park House team is about 80 strong. All members contribute to the health, welfare,
well-being and contentment of our residents and each shares our service aim of meeting
residents' many and varied needs through discreet, respectful support, compassion and
competence.
Matron, who is also Registered Manager, joined Park House having qualified at St Mary's
Hospital, Paddington in 1978 where she specialised in dialysis and kidney transplant.
She also worked in intensive care, coronary care and oncology. She had a break of over
10 years whilst raising her family and then answered an advertisement for a 2 day a
week post at Park House, but that was 12 years ago!
Deputy Matron trained at Brighton
University, registered as a nurse in
2000, and has since held posts in private
hospitals and at Addenbrookes
(Cambridge) before joining Park House
in November 2011.
Head Carer has been with Park House
since August 2000 and has NVQ Level 3
in Health and Social Care; she assists
Matron/Deputy Matron in the oversight
and implementation of care policy and
practice.
Administrative support is the responsibility of our Administrator, with the assistance of a
Secretarial Department. Our Administrator has worked at Park House since April 2011
and came from a background in finance (banking and government service).
Head Secretary has worked at Park House for about a year and has come from a
secretarial and business support background.
Our length-of-service profile
shows significant numbers of the
team with well over 5 years
service. We are a multi-cultural
team but place great emphasis
on cultural awareness in our
induction and training.
On-going staff training and
support assures we operate with
all necessary competences.
Rooms
Every resident's room is spacious and elegantly decorated and furnished, with its own ensuite. Each room has a large flat screen television and in the majority will have an electric
tip / tilt, raise / lower bed. The rooms are hard-wired for personal telephones except in the
dementia community. All additional equipment as may be needed to support nursing and
care practice is of course provided as required.
There is no standard approach to
furnishing and decoration of resident
rooms to avoid a uniform appearance,
the antithesis of homely individuality.
We prefer instead a more 'ad hoc'
approach which enables the
introduction of fresh and elegant
solutions as needs arise.
Personal possessions, especially pictures and small furnishing items, are welcome as
they are an essential reminder to residents that, when moving into a nursing home, they
are not "giving up" or losing their home.
They are just moving that home as they will have done a number of times earlier in life,
albeit on this occasion the cause sometimes provokes initial sadness.
We may be called a Nursing Home but, more truly, we are a community of individual
homes which we serve with our care and nursing.
Activities
Two Activities Programmes are freshly set every week, (one essentially structured for our
'medical / palliative' residents, the other for our 'dementia' residents).
With six part-time staff in the Activities team, a broad spectrum of skills is available to
promote the stimulation and fulfilment of residents, and to provide focus and
encouragement for various social gatherings. We offer a weekly quiz, exercise group, word
games, craft and painting and there are frequent visits from various outside musicians and
entertainers.
Men's distinct interests are
recognised, and likewise those of
ladies, and we ensure there is
something interesting happening
most weekends.
We organise shopping trips and
other outings to suit individual
requirements and encourage outside
activities such as gardening or
visiting the park opposite.
Obviously we are delighted to have the enthusiastic participation of the more able and
socially oriented residents, but we recognise the importance of adapting activities to meet
the inclinations of less able residents.
Craft sessions, for example, are not for everyone a focus upon the finished product but
more an opportunity for joining together for fun and social interaction; there will always be
one-to-one sessions too, where being conversant with a resident's background/family/
career/hobbies and travels, can help relive happy past times.
We feel it is important not to forget
that an activity can be as little as
sitting with a resident and watching
the world go by or sharing a cup of
tea or coffee whilst looking through
a photograph album.
The Activities Team edit a colour
monthly newsletter for each
resident of the Home which is full
of topics and comment of interest
to relatives and residents.
Gardens
Our gardens are gated and safe. They offer a profusion of diverse interest, from the
earliest buds and colours of spring, through the balmy scents of summer into autumnal
shades and beyond.
Level hard-surface pathways make for all-round
easy access, both on foot and by wheelchair.
Plenty of garden tables and chairs ensure "the
outdoors" becomes a most practical and
comfortable place for residents during any
clement weather.
Our water garden is a particular interest with its
fountains, neighbouring agapanthus, rose
bower and "grecian" statuary, all delighting the
eye - whilst the restful acoustic of tinkling water
makes warm summer days in the garden "a
must".
As autumn advances, the progressive redmakeover of the garden's centrepiece mature
Canadian maple is always a talking point.
Residents are able to join in looking after their own garden area, with assistance and
oversight from our Activities staff should they wish.
Testimonials
Here is just a tiny sample of comments sent to us by recent residents' families.

"A few words to thank everyone for the incredible care given to my mother during her
4 year stay at Park House. It was a great comfort to see how well she was cared for
and the genuine affection shown to her by so many. I must also say a huge thank
you for the care and support given to me during this time. It was a rocky ride for us
all at times, but I have no doubt that neither my mother nor I could have been in safer
or more caring hands."

"Thank you so much for making my father's 99th birthday so very special. All the staff
at Park House gave him such a happy day."

"Thank you all once again for the wonderful job you do, it is so appreciated."

"Your excellent Park House Nursing Home must be one of the very best in the
country. The quality of care would appear to be second to none, and the wellappointed house and its lovely peaceful garden all add to the ambience of the Home.
I write in grateful appreciation for all the tender loving care for over 12 years so
professionally, patiently and sensitively given. All the staff have been so warm and
welcoming and so kind and helpful in every way, and the cooks do a great job too, as
I sampled their fare."
Fees
Fees are individually quoted, according to a particular resident's nursing and care needs
(which can vary greatly, person to person) and the room chosen/available.
Our fees are very competitive and represent, given our care and service, truly excellent
value for money. As we are a nursing home, there will be an additional government
contribution hereto (the Free Nursing Care allowance, FNC, previously known as
Registered Nursing Care Contribution, RNCC).
The majority of our residents pay their fees privately, but a few are in receipt of an NHS
Continuing Care Determination (on account of the severity and/or unpredictability of their
needs), and this Determination should defray their fees in full. Prospective residents who
would be reliant upon local authority funding would be required to identify a third party to
contract for settlement of the top-up element of their fee above the authority support rate.
Our weekly fee essentially covers all non-discretionary expense -accommodation, meals,
laundry, day-to-day nursing and care, domestic services, in-house activities and
entertainment. This fee is requested settled four weekly in advance. Expense other than
above, ie. discretionary expense, such as for a daily newspaper, telephone calls, private
physiotherapy, attendance from a visiting hairdresser or chiropodist, is charged
separately, and invoiced quarterly in arrears.
Please contact us now to discuss your individual requirements, to arrange to look around
the Home, or to discuss the possibility of a pre-admission assessment.
How to Find Us
Park House
Nursing Home
Park House Nursing Home
27 Park Crescent
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE1 4DX
Telephone : 01733 555700