Westmorland Hospital: Hospital Wards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of ward 6 at Westmorland General Hospital on (a) social care provision and (b) hospital bed availability throughout the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Responsibility for decisions about the delivery, funding, and implementation of services ultimately rests with the National Health Service commissioner, and it is important that integrated care systems operate with a high degree of autonomy in making decisions in the interests of their populations.
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has reviewed how beds are configured across their three main hospitals, the Furness General Hospital, the Westmorland General Hospital, and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. This review has shown that there are opportunities to improve how beds are used within these hospitals, which would lead to:
- improved patient care and outcomes;
- improved staff and patient experience;
- streamlined clinical pathways which will allow them to ensure their patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right unit, and reduce inpatient length of stay;
- clinical colleagues being able to spend more time with patients by reducing the need to visit various wards to see patients who should all be in the same place; and
- increased resilience over the winter period.
All the services will continue to be offered, but from different areas in the same hospital, or more appropriate settings within the community. Adult social care services within Westmorland and Furness Council have confirmed that they are currently able to offer support to appropriate patients.
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