Dozens of jobs for Bupa care home in Southampton

PRIVATE healthcare giant Bupa has announced it is creating dozens of new jobs in Southampton.

The group wants new employees to staff its new 71-bed care home, due to open before the end of this year in Merry Oak.

Bupa Care Services, which runs more than 300 homes across the country, is looking for staff ranging from carers to housekeepers and maintenance workers.

Alistair How, the group’s UK care homes director, said: “We are investing in new care homes, extensions and refurbishments, but it is the people working in our care homes who really make the difference to residents.”

Bupa said while some roles didn’t need previous experience, it looked to train staff in new skills and progress their careers.

Last January Southampton City Council handed Bupa a 50- year lease to build a home on a plot of council land at Oak Lodge, off Freemantle Common Road.

The deal will allow the authority to buy 40 beds for the elderly with mental health problems at a below market rate – an estimated saving of £10m to £25m over ten years.

The home will also have a 15- place day centre.

The scheme follows the blueprint of Bupa’s 101-bed Northlands House nursing home in Westrow Road.

Two social services office buildings on the one-acre have been flattened to make way for the care home development.

The jobs are among 800 created across the country.

Bupa is also opening new care homes at Stratford-upon- Avon and Malvern.