ALTON Community Hospital looks to be shaping up for a more secure future, following an announcement that Inwood Ward could reopen in part by the autumn. That is the message from the North Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) whose board members say they are "committed to, and working hard towards, an autumn 2006 opening for 12 beds on Inwood Ward". While it is not the 24 beds promised, it is heartening news for local campaigners, who have been fighting hard to get the ward reopened. And, they are assured, the remaining 12 beds will be brought back into use, hopefully by the summer of next year. The first advertisements for qualified nurses and health care assistants to man the ward should appear in late June/early July. According to PCT spokesman Peter Campion, the initial intention is to recruit the equivalent of 14 full-time staff. He told The Herald: "We are adopting a very flexible approach and expect many of the new staff to work part- time, so we will probably employ up to 20 people." An interesting development, since inflexibility was felt to be one of the contributing factors to the sudden, unannounced closure of the ward last July. At the time, the PCT claimed it could not find the nursing staff needed to safeguard standards of care on Inwood Ward. And there were no plans to reopen it. The community was outraged, condemning the PCT for undertaking a cost-cutting exercise without any public consultation. A public meeting was called by the then town mayor, Paddy Mendham, which resulted in the setting up of a stakeholders' group, charged with working with the PCT to look at the future of Alton Community Hospital and of Inwood Ward in particular. The aim was to bring the ward back into service by the end of this summer. In February, the group came up with a plan to reopen the former GP/consultancy ward under a nurse-led (with medical cover) model of care, taking patients who do not need acute care as well as those coming out of an acute hospital, but needing time to recover. The aim was to provide a multi-disciplinary "centre of excellence" for intermediate care, incorporating active rehabilitation primarily for orthopaedic and stroke patients from north Hampshire. This plan has since been further developed by the PCT and is now being actioned. In a statement this week, the PCT has confirmed that when Inwood Ward reopens, it will concentrate on rehabilitation programmes to help people to regain their independence as quickly as possible. These programmes will include therapy services, often delivered by health care assistants under the guidance of qualified therapists. The phased reopening of Inwood Ward is said to reflect the fact that full introduction of the government's new "payment by results" system, under which money will follow patients throughout their treatment, is being delayed in Hampshire. This, explained Mr Campion, is to try to ensure a reasonable degree of stability while the county's underlying financial deficit is dealt with. "Money will follow patients as they move from larger hospitals to the next phase of care and treatment in community hospitals such as Alton. This extra funding will pay for further reopening of beds," he said. Paddy Mendham is heartened by the news. Since February, the stakeholder group has been reduced in number, but is still working closely with the PCT and monitoring the progress of its master plan. It is expecting the first 12 beds to be back in use by September and the remaining 12 to come on line by the summer of 2007. "We are now confident that, with pushing, the plan to re-open Inwood Ward will happen," said Mr Mendham.
