Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021

31 | Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021 Following its well-deserved recognition in the programme, we spoke with the Director and Owner of Sambrook House Residential Care Home, Neil Robson, for more insight into the team’s ethos and quality of care. ‘Much as I am delighted to accept this reward on behalf of Sambrook House Residential Care Home, I am mindful of the truly horrendous 18 months that our industry has faced with the pandemic’ said Neil Robson, Director and owner. ‘I often pause and reflect on the appalling loss of life this virus has caused, I pay tribute to the thousands of Care Homes and their staff that have battled through this pandemic, and my heart goes out to all the grieving families – it feels like we are slowly emerging from a war! Sambrook House is a 28 bed, privately owned, residential care home located in the idyllic village of Sambrook, nestled in the beautiful Shropshire countryside (5 miles north of Newport). It has been operating since the 1980’s and boasts ‘hotel like accommodation with professional carers’. Gill Gannon (Care Manager since 2006) said ‘our role here is to provide a safe, friendly and caring environment where our residents can feel at home and where their privacy and individual wishes are respected and independence is promoted. We never lose sight of the fact that this is their home’ As of September 2021, Sambrook House has kept Covid-19 out! This is a fantastic achievement and is down to a number of things. A fantastic team who have made personal sacrifices to keep themselves safe, new infrastructure and equipment like air filtration systems, temperature checks, outside hand wash, the installation of a caravan on the car park as a testing station so everyone is tested before they enter the building, stringent adherence to PPE and full support from relatives, refusal to take any new clients from March 2020 until March 2021, the creation of an ‘at cost’ shop giving our staff the opportunity to buy all their food etc through the Home so that they didn’t run the risk of shopping, and of course a healthy smattering of good luck! Coronavirus has proven to be an insidious disease because it takes a few days to infect you and you are likely to be infectious to others before you have symptoms, so getting it in a closed cell like a care home means it is likely to have spread before you are aware of it (residents don’t wear masks) Care Homes provide a lifeline for our elderly and infirm and it is a real shame that Coronavirus has dealt such a blow to the industry, and it has been subject to unrelenting bad press, making people fearful of using these wonderful facilities. Neil Robson said ‘it is my hope that, with the successful vaccine rollout, we are now protecting our vulnerable from this disease and slowly we shall be able to get back to some sort of normality. Care home living should be fun and rewarding, with great food, entertainment, company, and care! ‘Life is for living’ At Sambrook House we have this on our promotional literature. Coming into a home isn’t the end of living, rather it is a new chapter where a lot of your daily worries are dealt with and you (and your family) can concentrate on the things you enjoy. Often it is the daughter or son that has morphed into the role of carer as people become more and more frail with age or dementia. Moving into a care home setting takes away the role of carer and allows ‘the carer’ to slot back into the role of daughter or son – giving them their time back, secure in the knowledge that their loved one is being professionally cared for, and this means that time together is once more quality time. Neil Robson concluded ‘I am both humbled and delighted to receive this award on behalf of my amazing a dedicated team. We have managed to develop a great reputation locally for being a lovely, tranquil and homely place to live, something that my wife and I are justly proud. The last 18 months has been tough, but much harder for those homes and staff that suffered a Covid-19 outbreak – I consider ourselves very fortunate. Thankyou SME News for giving us this accolade for the second time!’ If you would like any further information about Sambrook House then please: Website: www.sambrookhouse.co.uk Email: [email protected] Telephone : 01952 550210 Jul21575 SME News Midlands Care Home of the Year 2021