Entire top floor of town's £10m Richardson Hospital 'now empty'

THE Richardson Hospital in Barnard Castle remains under-used and there is no sign that NHS managers have tried to maximise services at the site despite paying full rent on the building, town councillors claim.

A report to go before the town council as we went to press outlined the efforts being made by local campaigners to find a use for the community hospital and the problems they face.

Councillors will hear how County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is paying full rent on the building, even though the whole of the top floor of the hospital is now empty.

The town council is calling for the site, which opened in 2007 and cost £10million, to be put to better use after a cut in the number of beds and staff at the hospital last year.

A report written by Cllr Judi Sutherland explained how a group had been set up involving the health trust, clinical commissioning group, the Friends of Richardson Hospital and the town council. They have met to discuss a way forward. Cllr Sutherland said: “The trust is struggling with a shortage of nurses but also maintains that there is not enough demand from Teesdale people to staff both wards.”

During recent weeks, the remaining ward had been under capacity for 15 days, at capacity for 17 days and over capacity for seven days. The health trust says changing times mean the hospital isn’t need as much as it once was.

“The trust points out that there is a national project in place to care for far more people at home, where they would prefer to be, and also that with improved technology, the number of days stay in a facility like the Richardson is falling,” said Cllr Sutherland. “These are both major reasons why the hospital is getting less use.”

But the councillor said bed blocking at larger hospitals could be alleviated by moving patients to the Richardson.

Cllr Sutherland said: “We have asked the trust to look at other uses for the empty ward. They looked at providing extra care, similar to that provided at Abbeyfield or Charles Dickens Lodge, but this would require major reconfiguration of the whole floor. We have asked whether a local hospice would be interested in running it but the trust thinks there is no shortage of hospice beds.”

As well as caring for in-patients, services provided by the Richardson Hospital include podiatry, urology, orthoptists, rheumatology, audiology, retinal eye screening, speech and language therapy, dental, dermatology and physiotherapy. Clinics are held for pain, contraception and sexual health, warfarin and lymphedema, and the hospital offers pulmonary and cardio rehabilitation services as well.

A survey carried out by the town council last year revealed residents had not been

offered outpatient appointments at the hospital and are instead being asked to travel to Darlington or Bishop Auckland to attend clinics.

The town council report puts this down to a lack of knowledge about the services on offer and blamed the trust for not publicising them better. Cllr Sutherland added: “There may also be an element of meeting targets here – if the NHS has a target to see new patients within so many weeks of referral, they may ask them to attend an earlier appointment at a different clinic.”

She said patients should be given a choice of whether to attend the earliest appointment or the nearest. The out-of-hours GP service at The Richardson is not be publicised enough, the report added.

“The building is let to the trust by NHS Property Services and pays rent for it. If the building remains half empty, the trust still pays rent on the whole facility, making service provision expensive.

“Despite this, we have seen no sign that the trust attempts to maximise health and social services to keep the hospital full, but they have undertaken to look at this,” said Cllr Sutherland.

A spokesperson for CDDFT said: “We recognise that the Richardson Hospital is well loved by the local communities it services and making the best use of all NHS resources and assets is in everyone’s interests. With this in mind, the Richardson Community Hospital Reference Group has been established as a forum where all the different partners and representatives from the local community, including Barnard Castle Town Council, can come together to discuss how the hospital could be utilised in the future.

“This work will continue through the reference group. Partners are listening to comments and feedback coming through the meeting and while the ward area continues to meet demand for the area, the Foundation Trust has committed to developing a communications plan which includes making more information about the out-patient specialities provided.”