Activities at Herne Place Care Home

All residents at Barchester’s Herne Place care home, in Herne Bay, are delighted to have received their third booster Covid-19 vaccinations and flu jab by Park Surgery.

General Manager, Sophie Betts said: “We’ve all been through such a difficult time over the past 18 months but the vaccine has been so important in helping us get our residents’ lives back on track.

"I am so proud of the team and how they have worked together and continue to do so and we are all so grateful to be prioritised to receive the booster vaccine first. We’re not completely back to normal yet but we know the booster vaccination is vital to help us keep everyone safe.”

A staff member at Herne Place said: “We know that Covid isn’t over and we still need to be careful and follow the guidelines, but there is a huge sense of relief now that we have had our booster vaccinations. We know that this will help keep our residents safe and allow us to enjoy some trips and entertainment over the winter months.”

We’re making our homes as safe as possible and will ensure that all new residents and staff are vaccinated before moving in or working in our homes.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Herne Place care home in Herne Bay were treated to a wine tasting masterclass hosted by Nick Parker and Lee Isaacs from Unity Wines.

Wine can be a complicated subject and Unity Wines aims to help people navigate the different styles on offer in order to find the perfect wines for all of its customers.

Nick and Lee took Barchester residents on a tour of the world of wine starting with a light, fresh Italian sparking dry white wine, Tosti Asti Secco. With lemon, pear, apple and white peach, this is a great alternative to Prosecco. Next was a South African white, Bird Island Chenin Blanc – such a versatile wine, this example had green and red apples, peachy fruit, and a hint of something slightly tropical with a wonderful hit of apricots, nuts and melon.

Then the residents were off to France to try Ancien Temps Rosé, a light, rosé with notes of white flowers, strawberries and cranberries. To finish, it was the turn of Spain where residents sampled Ramon Bilbao Rioja Crianza with its ripe, vibrant blackberries and plums, and filled with flavours of brambles, cinnamon and nutmeg and a lingering toastiness.

“It was a privilege and a pleasure to share some of our best-loved wines with the Barchester residents, it was a whistle-stop tour but hopefully we gave everyone a good flavour of some of the different styles on offer from a lovely dry Asti right through to fruity Rioja,” Nick said.

Lucy Tomlinson, Resident Experience Manager for Barchester Healthcare, commented: ““We love working with our wonderful partners like Unity Wines to bring a wide range of fantastic experiences into our homes for all to enjoy. This tasting was really interesting, (not to mention delicious!) because it showcased so many different styles of wines from countries around the world.

“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Lucy added.

General Manager, Sophie Betts, said: “Our residents love a glass of wine with their lunch or dinner and they love to try new styles so the tasting went down an absolute treat. It was very interesting to learn which wines pair well with different foods, our residents are looking forward to trying out Nick and Lee’s recommendations.”

We are delighted to announce that Herne Place has been named as one of the top 20 care homes in South East England by Carehome.co.uk. A huge congratulations to everyone who has made this possible!

Carehome.co.uk is an online care home directory that collects recommendations about homes across the UK and rates them in order to assist people looking for good quality care services in their search for the ideal care home.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Herne Place care home in Herne Bay were treated to a talk about robots past, present and future by V&A Dundee Curator, Kirsty Hassard.  The presentation forms part of a series of six talks and virtual tours that V&A Dundee is hosting for Barchester Healthcare’s care homes and private hospitals across the UK.

V&A Dundee is Scotland’s design museum, it showcases Scotland’s outstanding design achievements and features world-class exhibitions alongside the permanent Scottish Design Galleries, and a changing programme of commissions, events and activities.  

Kirsty’s presentation spanned many years, from robots’ early beginnings as the stuff of pure science fiction, it traced our fascination of all things wired and wonderful and moved on to cover how robots are helping people all around the world and even shaping our future.

“Love them or loathe them, robots are here to stay!  This exhibition asks some very provocative questions about our relationships with our mechanical friends. I was delighted to be able to share it with Barchester’s residents and answer some of their questions on how robots’ capabilities are developing,” Kirsty said.

Lucy Tomlinson, Resident Experience Manager for Barchester Healthcare, commented: ““We have been using technology to keep our residents and patients connected with their loved ones as well as offer virtual events, entertainment and activities throughout the pandemic.  We are excited to work with our wonderful partners like V&A Dundee to bring a wide range of fantastic experiences into our homes for all to enjoy.

“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Lucy added.

Acting General Manager, Sophie Betts, said: “Our residents were fascinated to learn so much about robots and to find out about where the industry is going.  It is absolutely mind-boggling to think what robots can do now and what they might be able to do in the future!”

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Herne Place care home in Herne Bay were treated to an exciting live streaming tour and talk about Dartmoor Zoological Society, hosted by Education and Research Manager, Francesca Canale-Dow.

Created in the 1960’s as a private exotic animal collection, the Zoo fell into disrepair and was threatened with closure in 2006. Along came Benjamin Mee, who with his family bought the site and set about creating the Zoo as it is today.  In 2014, the Mee family kindly donated Dartmoor Zoological Park to Dartmoor Zoological Society (DZS).  The charity is responsible for the care of the animal collection as well as conservation, breeding and research projects.

Francesca’s tour explained about life at Dartmoor Zoo so residents could find out what it is like to work in such a demanding yet rewarding world.  The talk focused on the Zoo’s beautiful tigers, Dragan and Alisha.  Although not related, Dragan and Alisha were both born in 2014 and were hand reared together in Tierpark Zoo in Berlin, they came to Dartmoor Zoo in June 2016 at the age of 18 months.

Residents were able to see the tigers being trained and ask the trainers questions about how they go about looking after them, their daily routines and breeding programme, what they like to eat and do and what happens if they get ill and need care.

Francesca says: “We really enjoyed being able to show the Barchester residents some of the fantastic animals we have at Dartmoor Zoo, we are very proud of the work our brilliant teams do here.  We were just so happy to be able to share our passion for wildlife conservation and answer all the residents’ questions.”

Lucy Tomlinson, Resident Experience Manager for Barchester Healthcare, commented: “We have been using technology to keep our residents and patients connected with their loved ones as well as offer live streaming events, entertainment and activities throughout the pandemic.  We are excited to work with our amazing partners like Dartmoor Zoo to bring a wide range of different experiences into our homes for all to enjoy, particularly as this talk provided such a lovely opportunity to see the animals and learn all about them.

“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Lucy added.

Acting General Manager, Sophie Betts, said: “Our residents are fascinated by animals and so we were delighted to be able to watch the tigers being trained and to get to know their personalities.  It was brilliant to be able to ask Francesca and the team questions about their experiences of working with the animals.”

Residents and staff at Herne Place care home in Herne Bay have been cheering on their home sides throughout the Euros.  The home has been decked out with flags and residents have been enjoying all the action over the past four weeks.  Everyone at the home has loved seeing Gareth’s boys progress so far.

Fans of the beautiful game at Herne Place care home were delighted to be able to watch this year’s fixtures after the disappointment of last year’s tournament having to be postponed.  Residents and staff have had a brilliant time getting together to watch the matches and celebrate with a cold beer and footie-inspired bar snacks whipped up by the chef.

Sophie Betts, Acting General Manager at the home, said: “We have loved watching the Euros, we have watched pretty much all the matches – lots of our residents are footie fans.  It has been fantastic to be able to cheer on all the home sides and especially England, we did amazingly well to get to the final.”

A resident commented: “Although we didn’t win tonight, it has been a brilliant few weeks of football.  The lads did us proud and made it all the way to the final, they played their hearts out.  At least we haven’t got long to wait until the World Cup next year!”