NHS BOSSES may not hold a full consultation over plans to relocate a hospital ward.
The Northwood and Pinner Community Unit, which provides intermediate care for patients requiring rehabilitation and respite beds for patients whose carers are away, could be moved from Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood to the Woodlands Centre, opposite Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge, by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL).
The switch, which could happen as early as April next year, is not a removal of services and therefore a full-blown consultation involving roadshows and formal documents is not needed, Hillingdon Council’s external services scrutiny committee was told on Thursday.
Instead the trust will be able to gauge people’s opinions on a smaller scale although exactly how this will be done was not discussed. Councillor Michael White, chairman of the committee, which largely backed the plans, said: “I believe you can keep the consultation relatively confined so that we can move ahead as quickly as possible. I think it would be in all our interests to do that.”
It also emerged at the meeting that the relocation proposals were reliant on the trust opting, following consultation, to cut from 40 to 25 the number of beds used for dementia patients at the Woodlands Centre, which cares for over 65-year-olds with mental health problems.
Maria O’Brien, managing director of Hillingdon Community Health, which merged with CNWL last year, told the meeting that at the moment there would not be enough space to fit all 22 beds from the Northwood and Pinner Community Unit but there would be if the reduction of dementia spaces – prompted by a lack of demand – went ahead.
The new ward, operating separately from the Woodlands Centre rather than merging with it, would offer single and double rooms and access to a garden, gym and activities centre.
Last week the Gazette reported that some people had fears that the relocation would make visits difficult for the relatives of the 60 per cent of patients admitted from the north of the borough.
Northwood Residents’ Association chairman Tony Ellis also warned that “a huge part of Northwood’s history would die”.
In the meeting, Councillor John Hensley suggested re-routing the 331 and U9 buses, which link Uxbridge town centre to the north of the borough, past Hillingdon Hospital to make journeys easier.
