A NUMBER of groups and businesses have expressed an interest in helping to safeguard the future of an under threat horticultural therapy centre in Powick.
West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has offered her help to half a dozen groups who want to, in some way, maintain the popular Link Nurseries NHS service.
The centre, which helps people gain skills to aid their recovery from serious illness, is facing closure after the county’s health commissioning groups instructed the Worcestershire Health and Care Trust to save £250,000 from its vocational centres budget.
Following a consultation exercise, Trust bosses have recommended an option to close down the service and a similar one in Redditch in favour of a restructed vocational service model which would see just one county-wide service located in Worcester.
But Mrs Baldwin, who has been fighting to save the service since its uncertain future became public, said she was ‘convinced’ there would be a way of keeping the much valued service going in the long run despite the Trust’s proposals.
“I remain disappointed with the rushed NHS process and I am convinced that together we can find a solution which benefits the staff, service users and the local community,” she said.
“I have been heartened at the way the local business community has come forward to offer support and I will be trying to help get all the interested parties around a table to identify a win/win situation.
“However, having spoken to the local commissioners and county council, I am convinced there is a way we could make more use of the site and turn it into an even more impressive resource.”
But a leading Worcestershire County councillor has said the NHS has made a tough but right call in recommending the closure of the service.
Coun Philip Gretton, a member of the council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “As one would expect, the existing three centres mainly serve those living close by, with the result the there are many people needing these services but unable to access them because of transport problems.
“These changes will be difficult to implement, but they are the right way to go.”
Mark Dickens, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust’s lead for adult mental health, said the new model would prove beneficial in the long term.
“Although this new model has been informed by engagement with those who currently use the three centres, we do recognise that it represents quite a significant shift,” he said.
“But we really believe that this model will both retain the skilled interventions and support from qualified staff, and at the same time increase the range of activities people across all parts of the county will be able to access.”
