The number of beds at Worcestershire’s community hospitals are facing a shock 44 per cent cut. Health chiefs have revealed the deeply controversial move as part of a new five-year blueprint to plug a £250 million funding ‘gap’.
There are currently 324 beds at the five small sites, which are designed to keep people away from A&E at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alex. But bosses say it could be reduced to just 182, under a dramatic reduction not seen since the mini-hospitals at Malvern, Pershore, Tenbury, Evesham and Bromsgrove became a staple of the county’s NHS system.
The shrinkage is part of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), an 83-page dossier produced under serious pressure from the Government and NHS England to transform healthcare.
Bosses want to put more money into at-home care, funding a wave of nurses and other health professionals to go into people’s own homes to keep the sick out of hospital.
The Worcester News can also reveal how the number of beds at Worcestershire’s three main hospitals are set to fall slightly, from 743 to 740.
Bosses want to increase capacity at Worcestershire Royal, something first revealed by this newspaper last year, but part compensate it by taking away beds from other sites in Redditch and Kidderminster.
Full story in Worcester News, 24 November 2016