Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Big Changes in Community Health Services

For all the debate about acute services, we should not forget big changes are happening in community health services. Next week at Health Scrutiny there will be debates on the following:

1. The probable closure of one Mental Health Resource Centre - probably Walligton, as a result of budget reductions and a move of services out into the community.

2. A reconfiguration of the Community Mental Health Teams with a probable reduction in number of teams.

3. The closure of Sutton Day Hospital for the elderly on the Sutton General site (as well as the equivalent at the Neslson Hospital in Merton). Before anyone thinks this is something new, people should remember that if the Critical Care Hospital (CCH) had been built on the site, this service would have closed by 2008/9 as the current site became a building site. The service has been declining for a while, so its future has not been clear for a number of years. Once it has gone, and the Malvern Ward has gone for elderly mental health site, you might start picking up, that services on the Sutton General site are being cleared. Is this for a proposal of a potential sell-off of part of the site for the last ditch proposal of a small CCH for the February London Hospital Review,(conducted as we all know by a Royal Marsden Doctor), or is the site being cleared so it can be offered for sale to the Royal Marsden for an expaned specialism. From a Sutton borough perspective, the Royal Marsden option seems much better as the capital receipt for the Sutton site, also with a likely capital receipt from part of the the Epsom site could be used to pay for a full and comprehensive refurbishment of St Helier Hospital. I wonder if this osrt of disagreement contributed to Lorraine Clifton leaving the Epsom and St Helier Trust.

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