At-risk ward saved in rehabilitation scheme

A ward that had been threatened with closure at Rowley Regis Hospital will be turned into a nurse-lead rehabilitation centre, under new plans revealed today.

The hospital in Moor Lane currently has 20 beds for medical patients.

But proposals, due to come into force next June, will see all the medical beds moved to Sandwell Hospital and be replaced by the nurse and therapy-lead centre.

The ward will treat people who no longer need help from doctors, but still require care from nurses and therapists.

The Eliza Tinsley Ward at the hospital closed its doors in February because of a lack of GP cover.

The McCarthy ward had also been earmarked for closure, but it will now provide the base for the new centre, after more than 1,000 people signed a petition to save it.

The ward will remain open until next March, when it will be refurbished and the patients moved to Sandwell, where they can have better access to a wider range of medical staff.

While the ward is refurbished, staff will spend two months ensuring the new service at Rowley is up and running and the McCarthy service is successfully transferred to Sandwell.

Jessamy Kinghorn, spokeswoman for the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital Trust, said that the proposals were designed to offer more specialist care so people can be discharged earlier.

"It is felt that this will provide patients with more intensive support, it will very much be geared around social therapy, for patients who do not need medical support," she said.

"It means hopefully they will be discharged sooner, they will be out of an acute hospital setting, where things like infections are more likely to be picked up, and there is less chance of them becoming institutionalised.

"This is something we will be consulting on, when the plans are more advanced."

James Morris, MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, who led the campaign, said: "It is good that after several months of uncertainty that the future of in-patient facilities has been secured."