A NEW 82-bed luxury care home could be built next to Worcester’s hospital.

Developers have unveiled plans for the three-storey home off Newtown Road in Worcester opposite Worcestershire Royal Hospital, and are asking people what they think about the proposal.

If the plans go ahead, it would be built in 2012, and would cater for NHS-referrals and private residents in its apartments.

Developers, the Unity Development Consortium, say the home will cater for residents with a variety of ailments including those being rehabilitated after injury, people coping with dementia, and people with eating disorders.

The exact use will be determined by whatever firm eventually ends up running the home.

Ken Elrick, chairman of Unity, said the care home would be “top end” and was needed to cater for the predicted rise in extra beds needed for elderly people.

“This home would be built to the new ‘gold standard’ which is being set by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission,” he said. “We’re particularly aware of things like cross-contamination and good hygiene, which is why, for instance, the design has the laundry on the complete opposite side of the kitchens so there is never any crossover.

“It will have whatever eco-energy measures were appropriate.”

Unity will contract the building of the site and then sell the business plan to a care home operator, as a ready-made going concern. The firm also built the Housman Court care home in Bromsgrove in 1987.

There will be a public exhibition showing how the Newtown Road building will look, along with a questionnaire. This will be held in the Pond Room at the Countryside Centre in Wildwood Drive in Worcester between 2pm and 8pm on Friday, August 5. The centre has full disabled access.

If all goes to plan an application will be submitted in August and go before Worcester City Council planning committee in the next few months.

The development is not linked with separate plans for a care village on the nearby old Ronkswood Hospital site.