PLANS to shut a ward at Bishop Auckland Hospital have been described by a disaster for patients ahead of the winter and a “worrying” direction of travel.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed staff are being consulted about the closure of ward six at the hospital.
The ward is a “step down” nurse-led facility for patients who no longer need the care of a doctor after being in acute hospital care.
The ward offers similar services to intermediate care beds at Starling Ward in Richardson Hospital, Barnard Castle, which offers care and rehabilitation, although patients have not necessarily come out of acute care.
The trust says it wants to reduce hospital admissions and length of stay by providing more care and support at home. It also says there are no plans to shut Starling Ward.
County councillor Richard Bell is, however, concerned about the move to provide the care at home and has called for the ward six closure to be called in by the Durham County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee. He said: “This is a worrying development because it indicates a direction of travel – towards care of the elderly at home following discharge from acute hospital – without any evidence of the staff being there in the community to enable this.
“There needs to be a full consultation on this.”
MP Helen Goodman has begun a petition against the closure which she hopes to present to Parliament.
She said: “The trust have told me they want to treat more people at home via the district nursing teams, but they are not putting any more resource into that team. If ward six was to close in November, it would be a disaster for patients and NHS frontline staff this winter. As it stands this is NHS cuts dressed up as reorganisation.”
The MP has also called a public meeting at Bishop Auckland Methodist Church on October 18 to for people to discuss the issue. The meeting starts at 6.30pm.
A spokesperson for the trust said it is looking to reduce admissions to hospital as well as length of stay wherever possible because national evidence suggests longer stays for the elderly present increased risk of infection and muscle ageing.
The spokesperson added: “With regards to ward six at Bishop Auckland Hospital, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is working with health partners to look at how best to manage its beds in a way which reflects demand and is flexible to meet the needs of patients.”
Regarding the Richardson Hospital, the spokesperson added: “A report was recently presented to Durham County Council’s health scrutiny committee which said that the community hospitals across County Durham are a valuable resource which we should continue to utilise and Richardson Hospital runs clinics across a wide range of clinical specialities.
“For some time now we have been meeting regularly with community representatives and other individuals in Barnard Castle exploring opportunities for making the best use of The Richardson Hospital.”
Elsewhere, Mrs Goodman is calling on people to get involved in a consultation about the future of the out-of-hours care service at Richardson Hospital.
The trust wants to close the service because it is not well used. However, people in the dale complain they were never made aware of the service and are directed to Bishop Auckland or Darlington when dialling 111 for out-of-hours urgent care.
Mrs Goodman said: “They are constantly chopping and changing things. I think it is really confusing the public.”
