New year consultation will ask public where they want to see south Warwickshire’s 35 hospital community beds
Decisions on the number and location of community beds in the Stratford district will be made after a public consultation starting early in the new year.
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) today (Friday) confirmed that they will be seeking approval from the ICB Board to go to public consultation over the future locations of 35 community rehabilitation beds in South Warwickshire.
Once consultation is approved, the public will be asked their choice of two options.
The first, referred to as Option A, would see the 35 beds be split across three sites: Ellen Badger Hospital in Shipston-On-Stour, Leamington Spa Hospital, and Stratford Hospital. This would reduce the number of beds currently at Stratford Hospital and Leamington Spa Hospital and return up to 12 beds to the Ellen Badger site.
The second, referred to as Option B, would see the beds remain as they currently are, split between Leamington Spa Hospital and Stratford Hospital, but no beds would return to Ellen Badger Hospital.
Locally, this would appear to pit the priorities of Stratford residents against those living in Shipston.
However the bigger picture is that when plans for the new hospital in Shipston were announced, its 16 beds were moved to Leamington, while the development of Ellen Badger was ongoing.
After South Warwickshire University Foundation Trust pulled the original plan to include bedded wards, it left the old ward of the mainly demolished hospital - and it is this site, previously deemed as unsuitable, that is being considered under Option A.
Beds 4 the Badger campaigners have pointed out that it therefore seems a forgone conclusion that Shipston will not be a preferred site for community beds, even though it has a large new ‘hospital’ building near completion.
The plans for the public consultation will now go to an extraordinary meeting of the ICB Board on 6th January, where they will be asked to formally approve the launch of the public consultation on the proposed options for the location of community rehabilitation beds in South Warwickshire.
Should the ICB Board approve the proposal, the public consultation would launch the same day, Monday 6th January, and run for 6 weeks until Friday 14th February.
The papers for the meeting on 6th January, which will contain the full pre-consultation business case, will be published on the ICB’s website on 30th December.
A spokesperson added: “The consultation events will be a mix of in-person and online events to ensure as many people as possible are able to participate, with the in-person events taking place at different locations across South Warwickshire.
“Further details on the various ways people can participate will be released at the start of the consultation process.
“The ICB will also be creating a dedicated section on their website with all the information regarding the public consultation, including the consultation document, details on how to participate in the consultation, and a list of frequently asked questions.”
