Member Article

Care groups helps residents stay connected

Snowdonia-based Madog Care Group is helping its residents keep in touch with friends and family using the internet, thanks to support from Business Wales, the Welsh Government’s business support service.

Residents at the company’s care homes in Porthmadog and Criccieth are now able to stay in touch with relatives abroad using free wireless broadband.

The high-speed internet connection was installed after Business Wales guided the Madog Care Group through signing up to BT Superfast Broadband.

The homes have now bought iPads for residents. Carers will be helping them to use technology such as Facebook and other social media to communicate with distant relatives.

Residents will also be using Skype software to make free phone calls to numbers at home and abroad.

The homes can also for the first time access online quizzes and karaoke to entertain residents, helping improve their quality of life.

Andy Paynter, managing director of Madog Care Group, said: “The faster broadband connection has made a huge difference to our business and we are extremely grateful to Business Wales for its help in setting it up.

“The residents will love using the high speed broadband to keep in touch with their families. It’s also making a big difference to the business as we have been able to install software to improve our care plans and medication charts.

“Our internet used to be so slow, that we couldn’t have considered opening up secure wi-fi to our residents and their families.

“Now, we also have cheaper phone bills, allowing us to invest the money we save in resident care.

“We’re also transferring all of our files on to a new system and, thanks to a virtual private network, staff can file share and generally communicate with one another at a much faster speed.”

All Business Wales services are free and delivered bilingually from offices in Bangor, St Asaph, Holywell and Wrexham.

Superfast Cymru, a partnership between Welsh Government, BT, UK Government and European Regional Development Fund, is bringing faster broadband speeds to areas across Wales which would otherwise not receive it.

Business Wales is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. To find out how Business Wales can help start or grow your business, call 03000 6 03000, follow @_businesswales or visit www.business.wales.gov.uk or www.busnes.cymru.gov.uk for further information.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Harris .