Providing the right services for the people of south Warwickshire
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust’s ambition is to provide the right services, to meet the health and care needs of the people of south Warwickshire both now and in years to come. To support this the Trust are undertaking a review of community inpatient facilities at Ellen Badger in Shipston on Stour and The Nicol Unit in Stratford.
The Trust, working alongside partners in health and social care, has significantly developed services within the community. The diagram below shows the current community care model. Within this graphic you can see the range of services and healthcare professionals available to support people to live as well and independently as possible.
Thanks to new ways of working and technological developments, there is scope to develop services further and the purpose of this review is to understand if anything could be done differently to ensure patients are receiving the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
The pandemic has also encouraged us to reflect on our models of care and as we are entering a new stage of our response to Covid-19, we now need to make sure we are able to deliver the services which are needed, in line with the current health care landscape and operational challenges.
To date the review has taken into account a number of factors including community, staff and partner feedback, clinical safety, learning from Covid-19, financial and operational sustainability and the current estate offering. With support from clinical and operational experts, five options are being now considered:
· Retain the community Hospital bed base ‘as is’
· Increase the number of Community Hospital beds
· Change the type of services provided at community Hospitals
· Reduce beds and invest in community alternatives
· Retain the Community Hospital offer but change the location
Each option is being developed to understand it in the context of wider factors. This process will consider local demographic data and projected demand for South Warwickshire, understanding the workforce, financial and estate requirements underpinned by an equality impact assessment.
Once all of the information is gathered experts, including clinicians, therapists, operational and governance leads, staff union and HR representatives, representatives from social care will review each option and confirm which they would recommend the Trust takes forward. The recommendation will then be taken to the relevant decision-making committees.
Click here to view a timeline of the review process.
