Trust has plans to cope with growth

In response to the recent letter published (Postbag May 25), regarding the impact extra housing will have on Warwick Hospital, I would like to offer my reassurance that the Trust has a number of plans in place to ensure that we can continue to provide high quality healthcare for our local population.

Projections for our local area indicate that we are expecting a population increase in children and older people, the two highest users of NHS services, and therefore this will require us to strengthen our resources. Undoubtedly, the changes proposed will impact on health services and we have been working closely with our key stakeholders including commissioners, governors and local councils to identify the health infrastructure that will be required to manage this impact.

As part of these plans we are looking to develop a number of services at Stratford Hospital, not only in response to the growing population in that part of the county but also to reduce the number of journeys that patients make from the Stratford area to Warwick Hospital. As part of these plans we have met with Stratford District Council to discuss their proposals and to present the impact they will have on the health economy. This will allow us to determine what additional resources are required to support service development at Stratford Hospital.

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In response to the anticipated continued increase in births and the increase in the number of women who choose our services, we are finalising plans to expand our Maternity Department at Warwick Hospital. The development of services in our other facilities will allow us to have the space at Warwick Hospital to accommodate this expansion.

We are also expanding our Neuro Rehabilitation Unit at the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital, which has seen an increase in demand over the last few years. As it is only one of ten ‘Level One Acquired Brain Injury Units’ in the country we foresee that this demand will continue and are therefore responding to this requirement.

A core part of our strategy moving forward is to provide patients with care in the best setting which often is not in hospital. Therefore, we have invested heavily in our community teams, who are focused on delivering high quality care in patients’ homes to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital. This again will reduce the requirement for patients to attend one of our hospitals. For patients that do still need to attend Warwick Hospital we are improving the Ward environment and from October 2012 will be providing additional onsite parking for patients.

We do anticpate a growing demand for healthcare based on population projections and we are committed to working with our partners to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to support the changes we are facing to our local areas. - Jayne Blacklay, Director of Development, Warwick Hospital.

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