Hospice services in Oldbury will move to hospital
A day hospice in Oldbury will close with all its services moved to Rowley Regis Hospital, health bosses have announced.
It follows a 12-week public consultation on Bradbury House after bosses declared the building was 'no longer fit for purpose'.
The hospice in Wolverhampton Road, which is open four days a week, provides short programmes of care for patients across Sandwell.
Bosses say the range of services that are needed to 'ensure responsive and quality care' cannot be provided from the current site due to the state of the building. Staff are unable to let people with severe mobility restrictions attend, due to the size of the building while managers have concerns about the site's security.
Services and workers will be transferred by April 1 and a satellite service developed.
Transport will be provided but patients will have the choice or travelling to Rowley Regis, or visiting an outreach clinic.
At the moment Bradbury House serves 12 patients a week over four days. The service from Rowley Regis Community Hospital will be able to serve up to 60 patients a week over five days. Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) made the decision to support Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust in moving the hospice services.
More than 500 people responded to the consultation. Chairman of the CCG, Nick Harding, said: "Reflecting on the results of the consultation, we support Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust to move the day hospice service to the preferred option of Rowley Regis Hospital."
Hospital trust chief executive Toby Lewis said: "This is great news for patients, careers and staff."
