A care home is offering Macclesfield District General Hospital the use of a 30-bed unit, free of charge, to help in the local fight against coronavirus.

Capital Care Group, the owners of Weston Park care home, on Moss Lane in Macclesfield has made the offer to the East Cheshire NHS Trust amid a national effort to increase critical care bed capacity.

The care home provides residential respite and specialist dementia care to the Macclesfield community.

It is a purpose-built home set in its own grounds consisting of three separate housing units.

The 30-bed unit being offered to the NHS stands separately to the rest of the care home and is of a "high-specification".

The care home owners say the unit could provide the vital additional space needed to enable the NHS to provide step-down support for hospital patients, freeing up critical care beds in the main hospital for coronavirus patients.

Manjeet Rai, Managing Director, Capital Care Group, said: "Our homes are at the heart of their local communities, and in a time of crisis I felt it was imperative that we should do everything we can to support our communities and our colleagues in the NHS.

"We are delighted that we have the appropriate facilities at Weston Park Care Home to offer to the NHS and are proud to be able to play our part in the nation's efforts to tackle Covid-19.

"We see this as an opportunity to give something back to the community here in Macclesfield, whose friends and families we have grown so close to through our everyday work.

"We hope that by offering this extra space to hospital patients, completely free of charge, Macclesfield District General Hospital will then have the capacity it needs to treat those who are most unwell from the coronavirus outbreak."

Macclesfield Nub News has approached the East Cheshire NHS Trust to confirm if the offer has been accepted.