Hospital ward to close in target to reduce number of beds

ANOTHER ward at Staffordshire's biggest hospital is scheduled to close in the next three months to keep the biggest bed reduction programme in its history on target.

Bosses at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire have shut 85 beds since the summer by sending some patients home sooner and preventing others being admitted in the first place.

Now, they hope to bring the total fall to 99 by the end of March and complete the first phase of the overall strategy to slash its bed complement by 292 to 1,016 by 2012.

The Hartshill complex needs to shed so many beds because its �400 million super-hospital, now rising swiftly on the City General site, will provide healthcare on a smaller scale as more services are provided in the community.

Chris Fearns, director of the programme called Fit for the Future, said: "We know the public have concerns about us losing beds and how that will affect services.

"But this is all about better systems to benefit patients rather than simply counting bed numbers, and those are coping well with the sternest challenges thrown at us by this winter.

"People don't want to be in an acute hospital if it is safe for them to be at home and the programme aims to make sure that happens.

"But those systems also have flexibility built in to help us with surges of demand and an example of that is how the hospital has just opened additional temporary beds to ensure we can safely isolate patients with the winter vomiting bug norovirus."

As the norovirus demand reduces, the temporary beds will shut again and a decision will then be taken over which ward will be lost to bring the total fall to 99 by the spring.

That will prompt the launch of the second phase of the programme to dispense with a further 120 beds by March 2012.

The final 72 will be scrapped over the following months, ready for the new super-hospital to fully open late in 2012 – a full 12 years after it was first granted political approval by then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Measures such as speeding up discharges, better community care and a more efficient A&E department carry the hopes of shaving UHNS beds by nearly one in four.

Fit for the Future had drawn criticism for its slow progress over its first two years but its management was strengthened and more doctors were appointed to leadership roles.

Mrs Fearns said: "At the end of all this, we will be delivering better services in fewer beds which will be in fantastic surroundings.

"Our local GPs and community services have been focusing their efforts on supporting as many people at home as possible and releasing more beds at the hospital."

Psychology Nick Barmby Consumer affairs Rob Brydon Google Conservation