Archived decisions

REPORT OF THE

HEALTH OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

PART II

SOUTHWEST ALLIANCE - COMMUNITY STRATEGY SERVICES FOR OLDER PEOPLE

1. Public consultation meetings organised by the Primary Care Trust had attracted a significant public profile. Major concerns had been expressed about the loss of community hospital beds and the intention to close community hospitals without working with the communities to identify alternative uses for these facilities.

2. The Committee had received an unprecedented volume of correspondence on this issue, which had included comment from former health professionals and managers.

3. In order to promote further engagement with the communities affected funding was made available to support independent work with those communities. This complemented the work taken forward by the Primary Care Trust and provided a further opportunity for local people to shape the options being considered.

4. A series of "Community Cafe´s" to establish local feeling and wants were organised at venues through the area and this culminated in a workshop being held in Winchester on 25 October 2005.

5. Local people and interested groups from across the region together with local County Councillors, members of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and representatives from the Primary Care Trust attended the Workshop.

6. The workshop enabled all concerned the opportunity to share their views, capture the key points from the "Community Cafe´s", focus on the future, prioritise actions and agree common themes. It proved a great success with all parties actively participating.

7. The Primary Care Trust took note of the outcomes of the workshop and the following day issued a press statement confirming that it had dropped the proposals to close community hospital beds at Romsey and Fordingbridge and that no other community hospital beds will be closed until there has been a fundamental rethink of the community services strategy.

8. The report from the workshop is available in the Members' Room.

9. This supports Aims 1,4 and 5 of the Corporate Strategy.