Meeting: Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 2 - 03/04/2006 10:00:00 AM)
Item: A4 (b) Southmoor Hospital
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
South Moor Hospital - permanent closure of beds
The Trust is to consult on the permanent closure of inpatient beds at South Moor Hospital.
About South Moor Hospital
South Moor Hospital is a community hospital near Craghead in Stanley. It has 20 inpatient beds and also provides some outpatient and X ray facilities. It is also the base for PCT community staff. Outpatients and X ray are due to move to the new Stanley Health Centre in 2008.
Key issues
At its July meeting, the Board agreed to the immediate temporary closure of the 20 inpatient beds. This was for the following reasons:
- The 20 inpatient beds have been used since 2002 for “delayed discharges” - patients who are ready to leave hospital but for whom a nursing or residential home placement has yet to be arranged.
- Since 2004, the County Council has cut discharge delays to almost zero. Bed occupancy at South Moor therefore dropped to less than 50%.
- The beds were jointly funded by Health and Social Services. By June 2005 there were no more than 6/8 patients at a time awaiting discharge. The County Council therefore withdrew support and funding for these beds.
- The ward had also become more difficult to staff with both qualified and unqualified nursing staff.
Since the temporary closure of the beds the Trust has been able to absorb patients into its other facilities.
At its meeting in January 2006, the Trust Board therefore agreed that the beds should be closed permanently, subject to public consultation.
Issue for the Committee The Committee is asked to note the consultation.
Edmund Lovell 13 March 2006 Attachments
South Moor.pdf