NHS Warwickshire has pledged to continue providing successful out-of-hospital care arrangements for patients in the run-up to the closure of Alcester Hospital.

The PCT has previously revealed it would be closing the community hospital at the end of October to make way for a new state-of-the-art £6.8 million Alcester Healthcare Centre.

Health chiefs decided on the need to temporarily close the hospital for day patients so staff could be freed up to deal with the swine flu pandemic.

Paul Jennings, Chief Executive of NHS Warwickshire, said today: “We had to introduce the new arrangements for out-of-hospital care three months early because of swine flu.

“We have now looked at how these are working – and clearly they are working well. Rather than send patients back to day visits, only to stop a couple of months later, it makes much more sense to continue with the new arrangements.

“Of course, we’ve still got the option of day visits right up to the end of October and we have written to patients to explain this is the case.

“I am really pleased with the way everyone pulled together during this summer’s swine flu outbreak. At the same time, we must not be complacent as all the predictions suggest that swine flu will be back in the autumn, and it may very well be in a more severe form.”

The successful out-of-hospital care arrangements have included integrated teams of health and social workers providing treatment and additional support in patients’ homes.

The new Alcester Healthcare Centre – which is due to open in June 2011 – is set to boost patient care and provide a range of health services including physiotherapy, health visiting, district nursing and hospital outpatients’ services – as well as diagnostic services, such as X-ray and ultrasound. Work on the scheme is expected to get underway later this year.

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For further information:
Jonathan Sharp
Communications
NHS Warwickshire
Tel: 01926 493491 ext: 486