Amersham clinic cuts will "take pressure off" hospitals (From Bucks Free Press)

Amersham clinic cuts will "take pressure off" hospitals

12:19pm Wednesday 13th January 2010 in

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HOSPITAL clinic closures in Amersham are part of a drive to let patients be treated in their own communities, a hospital boss said last night.

Anne Eden, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, told members of Chiltern District Council the Trust was looking to “shift the balance” to take pressure off the county's hospitals.

Up to 40 per cent of services at Amersham hospital are to go as part of the move (see link, bottom of story).

But last night plans to convert part of the hospital into a 75-bed nursing care unit were unveiled.

Ian Garlington, the Trust's Director of Property Services, said it was “the best deal for the taxpayer”, as the cost of an overnight stay in a nursing care bed was £120 compared to £270 for a hospital bed.

He added: “There is a need for more social care beds in Bucks.”

Ms Eden said of the Trust's plans: “It's about shifting the balance from hospitals to community resources. It's not about hospital closures.

Hospitals will get smaller and need to be productive and specialist.

“We have moved them [clinics at Amersham] to under-utilised clinics at Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville. If there's no need for patients to go to hospital and it's good and proper for them to be seen in their local communities, that's what we are trying to effect. That's what's behind the news reports we've seen about Amersham hospital.”

To help this, the Trust is looking to take over control of community hospitals in Marlow, Buckingham, Thame and Chalfont St Peter.

Concerns have previously been raised at the number of hours GPs would be covering care at the hospitals (see link, bottom of story).

Part of the Trust's plans are to reduce referrals by 50 a day, with GPs seeing more patients.

Ms Eden told councillors: “It's about GPs being able to see more patients and to make better use of community services to take pressure off the hospitals and into the community, but we have to make sure the support is there to keep people safe in their own homes.

“We have so many patients who could be seen by GPs. We only have a relatively small team [at A&E] and they need to concentrate on patients in a life-threatening condition.”

The Trust also wants to reduce A&E admissions by 30 per cent and have 100 fewer hospital admissions each week, although Ms Eden said they were “struggling” with that target.

She added: “A lot of patients come to the hospitals and are presenting neither an accident or an emergency.”

A total of 438,000 hospital appointments were held at Wycombe, Stoke Mandeville and Amersham last year.

Of those, 16 per cent were at Amersham but 5.8 per cent of patients did not attend.

Cllr Noel Brown, Chiltern's cabinet member for health criticised the lack of information being made available on the future of Amersham hospital, although he added: “When explained properly, there's merit in the idea.”

Ms Eden replied: “We do need to improve communication. It was with good intent but we could have done better.”

She added 50 additional beds, equivalent to three wards, had been provided during the cold weather to cope with demand.

Claims there had been a freeze on recruiting additional nurses for the next two years were also denied.