Derby: Alarm as care home faces closure

Fears have been raised that Derbyshire care homes could come under pressure after an authority admitted it was looking at plans to shut one - reports the BBC.

Derby City Council has announced a consultation period over the future of Bramble Brook in Mickleover.

The council said residential care had become less popular in recent years and it had 80 vacancies across the city.

Age Concern said greater emphasis on home care meant many care homes were facing a financial squeeze.

There are about 40 residents and 32 staff at Bramble Brook, which has been selected as it provides no specialist care.

The families of those at Bramble Brook said the idea of being moved away from friends and familiar surroundings was causing distress.

Katy Pugh, chief executive of Age Concern in Derby, said: "I think finances are very tight and many of the new strategies and agendas mean money will have to be redistributed, so it is possible there will be more closures."

She added: "Experience has told us that older people facing this sort of situation suffer greatly.

"They become very anxious and it is more likely their health will suffer and certainly these changes are much harder to cope with at that time of life."

Derby: 150 hospital beds set to go

Dozens of beds at Derby hospitals will be cut to help save £15.9m this year, reports the Derby Evening Telegraph.

It is not yet known how many of the 1,157 beds at Derby City General Hospital and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary will be removed this year to make the saving.

But Chris Calkin, financial director of the trust that runs the hospitals, said that about 150 beds - the equivalent of five or six wards - were likely to go in the next few years.

It means many patients will not be admitted for an overnight stay ahead of operations and that more treatments will be carried out as day cases.

The trust is also looking to save money on staff, but it is hoping compulsory redundancies will be avoided by redeployment, retraining and natural wastage.

Mr Calkin said the trust had to make the £15.9m saving by March because the amount it was paid by the Government had been reduced by 2.5% in real terms.

All trusts in the country are in the same position.

He said: "We see the (money) problem getting worse and we are doing something about it now."

We know that we can be more efficient in how we use beds and that we can manage with a lot fewer beds than we have currently got and still provide the same volume and quality of service."

Derby North MP Bob Laxton said the way in which the health service operated had changed - patients were not needing to stay as long in hospital and therefore not as many beds were needed.

He said: "The health service is carrying out a lot more day work and people are spending a lot less time in hospital and so (the hospital) is accommodating these changes."

But former City Hospital patient Cyril Woods, 76, said it would be the staff and patients who would pay the price.

Mr Woods, of Brough Street, Derby, said: "I'm not at all surprised. I have been sent home at 10pm before because they've needed the bed."

Charlie Carruth, East Midlands organiser for Unison, also believed the beds were needed. He said: "Those beds shouldn't be cut and we should be asking for more money from the Government.

"Derby deserves more money. It is a good trust - it's really well run and efficient and the staff in it are absolutely marvellous."

Hospital cuts 'could hit jobs'

Health bosses in charge of three Derby hospitals have said that staff redundancies cannot be ruled out to make £15m worth of savings this financial year - reports the BBC.

The Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs three hospitals include the Derby City General Hospital and the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Health officials said they were trying to avoid job losses by leaving posts vacant and using fewer agency staff. But the chief executive of the trust has said that these solutions may not work in all cases and job cuts may have to be made.