Opal Aged Care plans for redeveloping Bossley Park facility
An ageing aged-care facility in Bossley Park would be demolished and replaced with an ultra-modern apartment-style living complex for the elderly.
Fairfield
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A Fairfield City aged care facility is hoping to introduce apartment-style units for its residents.
Opal Aged Care has put forward a $33 million redevelopment plan that proposes replacing its single-storey Bossley Park facility with one that is two- and three-storeys tall.
Most of the rooms in the current Quarry Rd facility house four single beds. In all, it can care for 100 people.
But the plans before the Sydney Western City Planning Panel represents a notable shift in the provider’s strategy. They include increasing capacity to 151 beds — the vast majority having their own rooms, with just 19 ‘companion rooms’ accommodating two single-beds.
Opal plans on demolishing its existing facility and building a new one from the ground up. At most, 36 staff would operate it during a 7am to 3pm day shift. Staffing numbers were not provided during the other times of its 24-hour schedule.
On the lower floor, there would be a dedicated ‘memory support unit’, a dementia ward with 16 single-bed rooms.
The remaining 116 rooms would be located on the ground and first floors. About 33 parking spaces would be available on-site, of which 18 would be allocated to staff and 13 to visitors.
Planning documents list a variety of in-house medical services, including visits from dental, optometry and podiatry professionals.
About 16 different activities are listed for leisure in the documents, including arts and crafts, concerts, gardening and physio exercise groups.
Opal Aged Care is not the only company seeking to build a new facility in Bossley Park. The Olivieri family, custodians of the 32,400sq m lot of land where A&L Florist has operated for 46 years, also have an application before the NSW Planning Panel for an aged-care facility and retirement village.
The two aged care facilities, both still seeking development approval, would be comparable in size, and come at a time as Fairfield’s population ages.
Opal Aged Care’s development application is currently on public exhibition.
Opal Aged Care did not immediately return calls for comment.