Mental health rehab unit set to be shut down

A rehab unit for patients with mental health needs is set to be shut down, an NHS trust has said.

Cromwell House, an inpatient centre in Barbourne, Worcester, provides 24-hour care as part of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust's recovery services.

The trust is also planning to close Oak House, a similar facility in Hereford, leaving Keith Winter House in Bromsgrove as its only community rehabilitation unit.

It said the savings made would allow it to create a new community team, capable of caring for up to 135 people in their own homes or in supported accommodation.

The closure of the two units would reduce the number of rehab beds in the two counties from 33 down to 15.

Sue Harris, the trust's director of strategy, people and culture said the closure wasn't about savings, but was about "getting value for money".

She told a health overview and scrutiny committee that "transparent conversations" had been had with staff, and that both buildings were "not fit for the future".

"At the moment you'd either go into a rehabilitation bed or not," she said.

"Even if we could support you at home, we don't have that rehabilitation capacity in our team, so that would see many more boots on the ground going into people's homes very practically."

Worcestershire councillor Mike Ward asked the authority's health overview and scrutiny committee what would happen if more than 15 people needed a bed, once capacity was reduced.

Clinical lead Sian Westaway said a bigger community team would be able to work with rehab patients in their homes to reduce the number of people that are readmitted.

"If we didn't have the bed and the patient was in desperate need of a level one bed, we would need to look to other providers within our cluster. However evidence suggests that wouldn't need to happen, based on the modelling we have done," she said.

Cromwell House also had accessibility and flooding issues, she added.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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