HEALTH chiefs have insisted community hospitals in the county, including the site in Malvern, have a bright future ahead despite plans being announced to reduce their bed allocations.
Last month the Observer reported how the number of beds at Malvern Community Hospital on Worcester Road could be reduced as part of Worcestershire Health and Care Trust’splans to deliver a new long term strategy.
Worcestershire’s Community Hospitals face a 44 per cent cut in the number of beds it provides as part of a new five-year strategy to meet a £250 million funding gap.
The Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) has been commissioned by NHS England to try to find ways in which the resources across Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s health service can best be used.
Published last month, the Trust unveiled its local plan which suggested it will make less use of the county’s community beds in favour of wider investment in home care.
The county’s community hospitals in Malvern, Tenbury, Pershore, Bromsgrove and Evesham have a combined 324 beds in total at the five, which aim to keep people away from A&E at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
But plans are to reduce the number of beds across all five sites to 182 by 2020/2021.
And following the Observer’s article, the Trust issued out a statement clarifying and reassuring residents no community centres would close under the strategy but admitted they could be used ‘differently’ in the long term.
Sarah Dugan, chief executive of Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, said: “We see Community Hospitals having an important part to play in the future, in some cases doing much more than they currently do.
“We have no plans to close any sites in Worcestershire and believe they have a key role to play in providing some of the more routine care and treatment in the community closer to where you live.
“If demand for beds goes down because more people are getting what they need at home, then the number of beds available in community hospitals could change, but we would like to reassure people that the sites remain an important part of the future of health care in Worcestershire.”
