Assurances given on hospital Irvine Unit future

The guest speaker at the league's annual meeting at Bexhill Health Centre on Wednesday was Alice Webster.

As head of adult services for the PCT she is responsible for the administration of the unit.

She gave an assurance that beds which had to be vacated because of temporary staffing difficulties were being reused, that extra staff was being recruited to restore day hospital services and that the PCT shared her desire to see the Irvine Unit provide the best possible care.

She told members: "Certainly, the unit is very dear to my heart. I care passionately about the care that we deliver and that it should be tip-top."

The unit offers intermediate care.

Defining the term Intermediate Care, she said it was short-term intervention by a combination of professional services to preserve the independence of those who might otherwise face a long stay in hospital or other residential care.

"That's what we are aiming at - a centre where people can come in. You can have bed-based care or you can have care in the home but all the service will be focussed from the Irvine Unit.

"It provides a service for people who require rehabilitation but who don't have acute medical needs.

"The Irvine Unit is just so central to everything that is done in the Hastings and Rother area and certainly in Bexhill.

"We have a range of services provided from there including palliative care."

Speaking of her hopes for the unit's future, she said: "My plans for it are echoed by everyone."

There was potential to improve the unit's environment and increase its capacity.

"We getting to be an older population by also an active population. People are working longer into their lives and we need to be offering services that are not just nine-till-five and are not just a model of how we did work.

"We have a very elderly physiotherapy room. It's a very small room. It's a very important hub of how we work but two patients in there and it's full.

"There is potential. We might be able to move the walls out, make it bigger, make it more dynamic."

She said: "I think the key to all of this is that it is a combination of individuals.

"It is not just patients, not just nurses but patients with families and supporters and we need to be embracing the people who are going to be continuing to support them."

She told the meeting: "I have a belief in the Irvine Unit. The organisation has a belief in the Irvine Unit.

"We have to make it develop for the future'¦

"We need to have a unit which is sustainable. We need to have a unit which we can be proud of and we have to do that together."

League chairman Stuart Earl said: "To allay the fears of the people who are involved with the league, not just as committee members but as supporters and financiers - because they are so generous - what we are concerned about is the long-term future."

What was needed was assurance to the community that the unit was secure and was going to be improved.

He said "scant regard" had been given to items given to the unit in the past by the league and by individuals.

Also, there was no area in the unit where the public could be given information about family members in privacy.

What was needed was a quiet room.

League member and former hospital administrator Charles King said a quiet room had been included in the original plans and he could show where.

Alice Webster said a room existed. But it was cramped and had no windows.

She hoped better accommodation could be provided.

Asked why offices had been created in part of the day hospital area, the speaker said opportunity had been taken to bring other services under the one roof after the closure of Thornwood in Turkey Road.

She gave an assurance that day hospital services would continue.

Explaining how last year the day hospital manager had gone sick and because staffing levels had been reduced there wasn't the capacity to run the day hospital, she said: "There has been a significant increase in PCT funding to increase staffing levels."

The head of adult services also spoke of her wish to improve the unit's "flat" - an area where, after rehabilitation, patients could demonstrate their ability to fend for themselves after discharge from the unit.