tCI Commentary:
Taken at face value the Healthwatch in Hereford are misinterpreting the position. Just because there will be an alternative provision it finds acceptable does not mean that local people need not be consulted. It will depend upon the approach taken by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee!
Article:
Concerns have been raised about whether there was enough consultation about the closure of a Hereford hospital annexe.
The Herefordshire Clinical Commission Group announced in October that the Hillside Rehabilitation Unit in Pentwyn Avenue is closing in February which means a loss of 22 community beds.
An engagement programme about how residents see future health and care services being developed in their communities was held between June and October but the proposal to close Hillside did not become widely apparent until October.
Anna Coda, chairman of Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour Party, said she believes there was not enough consultation on the specific proposal.
She said: “This represents the second lost health service in two years (and before that we had the closure of No. 1 Ledbury Rd).
“I feel that there is a complacency concerning the regard for genuine consultation on this specific proposal.”
The CCG publicised a governing body meeting, to which the public can attend, in the Hereford Times the week before but Ms Coda said she does not believe enough residents were aware about it and about Hillside being discussed at the meeting.
She added: “I still think that there are questions to ask as I suspect only people already ‘in the loop’ were aware of the proposed closure rather than there was a general consultation process, to which I did respond online.”
Anne Williams, from Credenhill, worked at Hillside from 2012 to June of this year, first as a healthcare assistant and then as a ward clerk.
She said: “I just can’t understand the closure. It is a valuable service. It was a bolt-on for the hospital. Patients had help before they went home. Everything was put in place before they went home.
“They finished their getting well process there.”
She also said she didn’t know anything about the proposed closure before it was decided.
A spokesman for Healthwatch said they broadly support the decision as part of the modernisation of services.
They added: “Members of the public have said to us through our multiple engagements that they would prefer care at home, or closer to home, rather than in hospital.
“The CCG has also carried out a wide range of engagements across Herefordshire about community service modernisation. At the Hereford city engagement events there was specific discussion about Hillside.
“Although a specific consultation has not been carried out about the closure Healthwatch understands that, as the service provision is being replaced with an alternative system, this is not required.”
Healthwatch has been assured that Hillside will not close until February to allow the new service to be put in place.
Article originally appeared on Hereford Times
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