Marlow Community Hospital beds to reopen On 1 November, a newly decorated and improved Marlow Community Hospital will reopen its doors to inpatients after a period of temporary closure.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has spent £250,000 on the hospital’s facilities, including: correcting the supply of water and improving infection control such as replacing sinks, taps, sluice rooms and floor finishes.

Work has also gone into eradicating mixed-sex facilities by relocating bathrooms so that there are now only single-sex washrooms.

In addition, the hospital has had a number of more general improvements to enhance the environment, including new ceilings and lights, and soft paint colours to give a more welcoming feel.

Rachael Corser, divisional lead nurse for the community and integrated care division, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to reopen the beds at Marlow Hospital and bring it back to being an integral part of the community. The hospital is a great facility that will support our vision to bring care closer to people’s homes”.

On 1 November, 12 inpatient beds will reopen taking patients who require additional support to regain their general health and strength before returning home. Beds will also provide transitional care for patients awaiting placement in a nursing or residential home and support end of life care. The hospital has four single side rooms, with the remainder of beds located in two bay areas. The hospital also provides services including; intermediate care and community nursing and therapy teams; consultant, nurse and therapy-led specialist clinics; musculoskeletal physiotherapy outpatients services; a team of health visitors and podiatry services.

Peter Land, chairman of Marlow Hospital’s League of Friends, said: “We see the chance of more opportunities to work with the Trust to create something of which the town will be justly proud. As the work reaches a conclusion, we are in discussions with the Trust to decide what we will do to enhance the facilities and hope we will be able to rekindle the desire in the town of Marlow to be part of their community”.

Rachael Corser added: “Financial help from the League of Friends is gratefully received – we very much value all the support they have provided and look forward to seeing our patients benefit from the work that has already taken place”.

Following the merger of acute and community services, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust now has a unique opportunity to streamline the patient journey and bring care closer to home.

Over the summer, the Trust held a series of engagement events, talking to staff, GPs and local residents to help develop plans on how we can optimise our community hospitals, ensuring that they are an integral part of the communities they serve.

We are fully committed to making the best use of Marlow Community Hospital and will use feedback from the engagement sessions to look at what services are provided here and how we can develop and adapt these to suit the local population. This is still an ongoing process which will see the hospital provide a range of services in the future that meet the needs of the people of Bucks.

ENDS.

Notes to editors: • Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust provide a wide range of high quality acute and community services from three acute hospital sites in Amersham, Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe, five community hospitals at Thame, Marlow, Buckingham, Chalfonts and Gerrards Cross and Waterside, and a number of community sites across the county. Details of these can be found here: http://www.buckshealthcare.nhs.uk/For%20patients%20and%20visitors/hospitals-and-community-facilities.htm • Specialist services include our regional dermatology, allergy and skin cancer centre, burns care and plastics sub-regional centre, cardiac services and the National Spinal Injuries Centre • More than 6,000 staff serve residents across Buckinghamshire, Thame (Oxfordshire), Tring (Hertfordshire) and Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire) - a combined population of 500,000. It serves a much larger population, 1.5m, for burns and plastic services and 14m for spinal injuries For further information, contact the communications team on 01494 734959 or at communications@buckshosp.nhs.uk.

Based on information supplied by Zosia Katnik.