WEYBRIDGE
National press coverage
National daily The Guardian
The "closure" of beds in community hospitals across Surrey has raised fears about the impact of health policies designed to send patients home faster at a time of growing financial pressure on the NHS.
The decision to "flex down" – temporarily shut – up to 42 beds in the county in October last year comes as senior NHS figures admit that improving community services, "reconfiguring" the health service, and increased competition from private clinics could result in whole hospital closures after 2011.
The problems in Surrey may be a forerunner of problems in other areas of the NHS. A British Medical Association report last week said hospitals in London will close or be downgraded as result of "a major financial and organisational crisis".
The Save Our Surrey Community Hospitals campaign was formed in protest about the loss of beds in community hospitals in Dorking, Epsom, Molesey, Leatherhead and Walton since October. "We are becoming increasingly concerned that patients are not being given the option of a community hospital bed," says Karen Randolph, the chair of the campaign. "We are being told that beds are not available and that there's reduced demand for beds."
Community hospitals are often used for patients discharged from larger, acute hospitals so that they can recuperate closer to home. But Randolph believes that patients are being sent straight home. "It's a money-saving device," she claims. "They say they want patients to go home [as soon as possible]. I challenge that assumption: many of these people are frail and don't want to go home immediately. They are selling it as an improvement in healthcare."
Read the full story in the Guardian
Save Our Surrey Community Hospitals Campaign
Walton Community Hospital - suffering from 'flexing down'
This campaign by concerned residents and councillors, including Elmbridge Lib Dem Leader Cllr Barry Fairbank, is being driven forward with energy by Oatlands campaigner Karin Peluso and Residents Group Cllr Karen Randolph, winning widespread support, and local and national media coverage.
Update January 2011
There was controversy when Community Hospitals were described as 'clinically unsafe' bythe Director of Nursing for NHS Surrey, Maggie Ioannou, when she appeared before Elmbridge Borough Council Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 20 January 2010. [Full report to follow]
The background
Alarm bells started ringing when Burwood Ward in Walton Community Hospital was closed (or ‘flexed down’ as health managers euphemistically call it) in 2009. Bed closures in Haslemere, Woking, Farnham as well as Walton led to the founding of SOS CH with cross-party support. The campaign is questioning Health Service decision-makers about the way bed closures and facility changes are being imposed with no proper consultation.
Flexing down and out of existence? The “flexing down” closures look worryingly like the start of a covert reduction of community health facilities across Surrey, seeking easy cost savings without consideration of community impact. Local Lib Dems are campaigning across Surrey to stop community health service changes taking place without proper consultation.
Bed closures in Community Hospitals means that patients cannot be transferred from the Acute Hospitals, thus blocking beds for patients waiting to have major surgery. At present the main impact is felt in the south of the county, but with increasing financial pressures these unconsulted closures will impact us all. St Peters Hospital is suffering significant “bed blocking” already.
Surrey residents have always valued our community hospitals and fought against threats of closure. Increasingly large and remote general hospitals may be needed to carry out complicated and specialised operations but it is essential that community hospitals are retained in the local community to accommodate recovering patients who do not need intensive care. What would the future of the local health service look like – with no community hospital beds? Nobody seems to know. If it is “Care in the Home”(when all patients are transferred directly home) where is the money going to come from? And many elderly patients do not always need expensive “acute hospital” care – what will happen to them?
Weybridge Lib Dems want the Surrey NHS to come clean with their plans and give Surrey residents a chance to have their say before our community loses essential hospital facilities.
From here to maternity
In parallel with SOS CH, Lib Dem MP Ed Davey (Kingston) and Susan Kramer (of Richmond Park) launched a campaign against closure of Kingston Hospital’s Accident & Emergency and Maternity units. Ed & Susan were told by senior managers within the NHS that a review of hospitals across south west London has concluded only 3 out of 4 hospitals should have either a maternity unit or an A&E and Kingston’s are thought to be high on the list for closure. Publication of the report which was originally due in December 2009 but was delayed twice, and then delayed further until after the 2010 General Election.