Norwich: New £19.3m unit to provide extra beds to ease winter pressure
Norfolk Community Health & Care TrustA new 48-bed unit is to be built to help bridge the gap between patients leaving hospital and returning home.
The "state-of-the-art" unit, costing £19.3m, will be created on a new ward at the Norwich Community Hospital.
The move is part of a £250m government investment to provide an extra 5,000 hospital beds to ease NHS pressures.
Stephen Collman, chief executive of the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust, said the authority was "excited to progress the build".
The reablement unit, which will be focused on providing various therapies, will take in patients from the Norfolk and Waveney areas.
Reablement units are used short-term to care for people well enough to be discharged from hospital, but who still need support to go home.
"It will play a key role in the commitment to delivering patient-centred care in Norfolk and Waveney," Mr Collman added.
"The new reablement facility will help facilitate seamless transition for patients from hospitals back into the community and reduce the risk of readmissions."
The unit is expected to be ready by the end of March, with its modular structure hoped to "increase the speed of construction", the authority added.
Chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney and former health secretary Patricia Hewitt described the new unit - to be built on the Bowthorpe Road site - as an "important investment".
"We know prolonged hospital stays, when not medically necessary, create poorer health outcomes, especially for those who are elderly or frail," she said.
"That's why it's important we support people to continue their recovery out of hospital."
Government ministers have said 900 of the new beds being created across the country should be ready by January.
It is hoped the new facilities will boost capacity and help cut waiting lists.
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