Community hospitals to get £1.2m boost (From Witney Gazette)

Community hospitals to get £1.2m boost

COMMUNITY hospitals across Oxfordshire are set to benefit from a share of £1.2m extra money.

The investment, from the county's primary care trust, will help improve the quality of services, as well as patient environments at Wantage, Abingdon, Witney, Chipping Norton, Townlands in Henley, Didcot and Bicester.

Campaigners in Wantage, who feared their hospital was under threat, welcomed the funding news, which will enable the Garston Lane-based site to recruit more staff.

The money will be spent on providing four registered nurses over the coming months, to increase staffing levels on late shifts and at weekends.

In addition, extra money is being ploughed into new cleansing areas for medical equipment, a bathroom and general maintenance work to the building.

Jenny Hannaby, chairman of the campaign group to save the hospital, said: "This is excellent news for the hospital and the community. It is very heartening for the hospital to have this funding and it can only be positive.

"For many years nothing was spent on the hospital because the building was deemed too old. But I am confident with the money being spent, the future of the hospital is secure for the foreseeable future.

"It is so essential we retain the hospital for the community. Our new nursing home will open next spring and the two services will complement each other very well."

A spokesman for the PCT, said it was very important to increase staffing levels at the Wantage site. Open days will be held in the coming months to encourage people to apply. She said: "We are investing in more staff, infrastructure and equipment to improve the quality of the service to patients and the environment they are being treated in."

The announcement came amid rumours of the closure of two more beds, which could affect the viability of the hospital if numbers dropped to below 18.

Over the last few years campaigners have fought long and hard to save the hospital from closure and they have witnessed the number of beds drop from 35 to 18.

The PCT spokesman said: "No beds have been closed and there are no plans to close beds at Wantage hospital.

"We recognise the value of community hospitals to the overall care of patients in the community and we are working to ensure services they provide continue to be developed to meet local needs."

Joy Whately, a nurse at Wantage hospital, said there was confusion about the status of the hospital. She said: "We have 18 beds at the moment and if we do close the beds it would only ever be temporary until we get our staffing levels back up.

"Staffing levels are being addressed and we are running fine.

"The wrong information going out can be quite detrimental. It makes us look silly. Our role in the campaign is to make people aware of the hospital and its services."

Mrs Hannaby was concerned rumours could affect staff moral.

The PCT spokesman said the trust was looking at redesigning services over the coming months, to make them work better for patients, reducing delays and achieving a better balance between care in hospitals and care at home.

She said any significant service changes would be subject to formal public consultation.

Councillor Jim Moley, said: "I'm absolutely over the moon the hospital is secure because there is an urgent need for a community hospital in rural areas."