Hospital: Warning from boss (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Hospital: Warning from boss

COTSWOLD people have been warned that they may endanger the future of their health facilities by demanding the reopening of beds at Bourton's Cottage Hospital.

The chief executive of the Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust, Richard James, issued the warning while responding to concerns about the continuing closure of an eight-bed ward. It was shut shortly before Christmas as part of cost-cutting measures, with a pledge that they would reopen before April.

The trust also closed the same amount of beds at Moreton Hospital - but these were reopened as promised early in January.

The continuing closure of the Bourton beds has been blamed on the difficulty of recruiting new nurses due to the high cost of homes in the area. Amid fears that the situation could lead to the permanent closure of the beds, calls have been made that they reopen without delay.

Sheila Jeffery, who represents Bourton on Cotswold District Council, said keeping the beds closed was a false economy because more money was spent sending patients to other hospitals. "I'm just getting pessimistic," she added. "We want the hospital up and running."

Mr James said the beds would not have been used even if they had been open, because the hospital had not been filled to capacity. "We need to focus on the services our hospitals can provide to increase local access to the NHS - but these services must make economic sense.

"If our communities continue to emphasise the need for beds and do not engage with the wider issue of local access to such services as out-patient, diagnostics and rehabilitation, our hospitals' future will continue to be challenged."

l Mr James also emphasised the problems of recruiting staff with a property market that has seen the cost of the average home soar to £271,000. "Whether it is for nursing auxiliaries, cleaning staff or other professional groups such as physiotherapists or occupational therapists, we tend to struggle and have done for some considerable time.

"This problem extends to colleagues in the ambulance service and in the local authority, and is heavily influenced by the cost of living in these high-cost areas.

"This recruitment challenge is extending right across the South of England and increasingly we are seeing more and more dependence on overseas recruitment to sustain our services.

"We will continue to work hard to recruit to all our hospitals and that recruitment has extended to Europe with some success."