An Aberdeen businessman who has created and operated elderly care centres across the north-east has been inducted into a prestigious healthcare industry hall of fame.
Charles Skene OBE, the co-founder and developer of the Inchmarlo Care home and Retirement village near Banchory, was recognised for his work by the UK Over 50s Housing Awards 2015, which seeks to promote and highlight good practice in the profession.
Mr Skene was one of the first pioneers of the concept of retirement villages with continuing care that provide the elderly a way to continue to live in their own homes – with the help of assisted living services.
He said: “When we conceived of the idea for Inchmarlo, we revived a care model that hadn’t been seen in the UK in over a century.
“In the three decades since the retirement village was formed, the concept of independent living has become widely accepted as a compassionate, cost effective way of ensuring a better quality of life for our ageing population.
“Inchmarlo Retirement Village has changed not only the way people think about care for the elderly, but how, as a society, we should manage old age itself.”
He is the only induction into the healthcare hall of fame this year.
Mr Skene is a visiting professor of entrepreneurship at the Robert Gordon University and owner of the Skene House hotel apartments across the Granite City.
In 1986, he created the Skene Yong Entrepreneurs Award after he was made chairman of the Industry Year Grampian group, encouraging youngsters in primary in secondary schools across Scotland to engage in entrepreneurship at an early age.
Among his many achievements and work at the Inchmarlo development, Mr Skene also won the award for most outstanding contributor to the creation of continuous care retirement community healthcare model in the UK.
Professor Skene added: “With one in three children in the UK today living to be over 100 years old, the demand for such a care model will only increase.”