Health bosses promised the new centre 12 years ago
A sign for the former Frenchay Hospital
Plans dating back over a decade to open a rehabilitation unit at the former Frenchay Hospital have been scrapped, sparking anger.
Residents were promised the new NHS centre in 2014 when the hospital closed and its emergency departments were relocated to Southmead.
But Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (BNSSG ICB) says national policy has refocused on patients’ recovery in their own homes rather than in-patient facilities, so neither the need nor money are available.
Health chiefs are now considering selling off the land to invest elsewhere, South Gloucestershire Council health overview and scrutiny committee was told.
Conservative group leader and ward Cllr Liz Brennan (Downend & Frenchay) told the meeting: “This is deeply disappointing for many residents.
“For years people in Frenchay and its surrounding communities were led to believe the site would deliver a meaningful healthcare service.
“After the closure of Frenchay Hospital there was a clear expectation that this land would continue to serve the local health needs.
“My residents must have the healthcare services they were promised, and with this homecare vision it is even more important they have access to local services.
“Instead we are now being told there is no strategic need, no financial viability and no clear plan.
“People are already struggling to access GP appointments and services are stretched.
“Many are travelling further and waiting for longer care, so when I hear there is no need, people simply do not recognise that.”
She said the government’s requirement for 22,000 in the district’s new Local Plan would heap more pressure on already stretched services.
Cllr Brennan added: “Residents were already feeling the impact of a lack of services and they deserve better than the uncertainty, inaction and missed opportunities. They deserve delivery.
“What scares my community to death is the release of this site for more housing which increases this demand with no actual facilities.”
Cllr Nic Labuschagne (Conservative, Winterbourne) told the meeting: “These were things that were planned and promised and are now not being delivered.
“So residents really have a major concern around this.”
Cllr Ben Stokes (Conservative, Boyd Valley) said: “Residents some years ago were given the message of closure with some comfort around healthcare facilities continuing on the site.
“It has now been formally announced that those are now not going to be there.
“It will create anger in the community.”
He said health chiefs had made ‘broken promises’.
ICB chief delivery officer David Jarrett said: “The ICB has identified that there is now not an identified requirement for further additional bedded rehabilitation facilities on the Frenchay site and such a development is unlikely to be a strategic priority in the foreseeable future.
“I do appreciate this will come as a disappointment to the committee but we hope now that releasing this land will enable North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) to consider options for the future use of the land, including the potential opportunity to generate further capital funds for use on funding further capital priorities.
“But the ICB now has no other commissioning intentions for the land.”
Council director of adult social care and housing Anne Clarke told the committee: “Older people lose their abilities if they are away from home for too long.
“That means some people go into long-term care who could have had many more years at home if those other options had been available to them, which also means some older people close their doors for the last time, not realising it was the last time, and that feels so wrong.
“We should be giving more people the opportunity to recover at home, to have rehabilitation at home, reablement at home, equipment assisted technology that enables them to continue an active life at home and in their community.”
A report to the meeting on Wednesday, April 1, said: “National NHS policy now prioritises neighbourhood-based, home-first rehabilitation, supported by multidisciplinary teams.
“This represents a significant change from the assumptions that underpinned earlier plans for a bedded rehabilitation facility.
“Updated modelling with local and national benchmarking shows that the system currently commissions sufficient rehabilitation beds, with flexibility to increase capacity temporarily.
“Existing facilities are adequate, and South Gloucestershire has a high share of beds – current provision in Thornbury and Yate is suitable and appropriately staffed.
“South Gloucestershire already has more rehabilitation beds per head of population than other BNSSG localities.”