Agenda item

- Kerry Rogers, Chief of Corporate and Legal Affairs, NHS Foundation Trust

Representatives of NHS Foundation Trust were in attendance to give an overview of the consultation currently taking place regarding the Park Rehabilitation Centre at Badsley Moor Lane, Rotherham.

Patients, users and staff of the Centre had been encouraged to complete a survey which had closed on 11^th June together with meetings with users and groups using the facility.

As part of the Trust’s recent savings consultation announced early in March, the services provided from the Centre were highlighted as 1 of the further areas for review at a later date of how best to provide services for NHS patients and other service users.

The Park Rehabilitation Centre was an expensive facility and was currently costing £100,000 a year over and above the resources available to the Trust.  Along with all other public sector organisations, the Trust was facing massive efficiency savings and, in light of the funding now being made available, the Trust had a duty to examine how NHS services could be provided in a more cost effective manner and ensure that NHS resources were not diverted to subsidise non-NHS services.

Discussion then ensued with the following issues/points raised:-

-        The £100,00 was predominantly made up of staffing and energy costs

-        Customers highly valued the facility and were prepared to travel some distance to use it

-        The site was accessible with ample parking – this would be a problem if the services were transferred to the District General Hospital as well as the distance a user would have to walk into the Hospital having parked their car

-        There was no suitable alternative hydrotherapy pool in the Borough.  The water was warm and had the most appropriate means of access

-        It was a genuine review of the services delivered at the Centre with the aim of listening to service users as to why they used it and did not use other facilities.  The review also looked at non-NHS users and what other facilities there were in the locality

-        The review was not only considering the financial implications but the impact on patients

-        Close work with commissioners to ascertain if anything could be done differently within the Centre

-        There would be a potential saving of £150-200,000 for the Hospital if NHS services were ceased at the Centre but that did not include patients potentially having to access the services elsewhere

-        If more services were put into the building and made a more efficient and financial viable building, it would be contributing to the vision of delivering services closer to home and giving patients the opportunity of choice

-        There were other options available for the site in terms of services.  There was a massive opportunity to look at the way rehabilitation services were actually delivered as they were currently all commissioned separately with separate teams of staff and a degree of duplication.

-        Investigations had taken place into the “covenant” from when the service had transferred from Firbeck but it could not be located.  If it did exist, it was felt that it would not affect any decision and would not prevent RFT from relocating services into the Hospital

-        As it would be a reconfiguration of Service, where would the decision be made?

-        The NHS part of the Service that was currently delivered at the Centre could be delivered within the Hospital setting.  Non-NHS patients were not recognised within the funding model

-        There were lifts at the new leisure centres but there would still be issues for some people to use them

-        The pools at the leisure centres ran the temperature between 29-31^oc; the Park Centre ran theirs at 35^oc.  There were 2 other hydro pools, 1 in Rotherham and 1 in Sheffield, but they were very shallow

-        Leisure pools had different ways of accessing them.  There was a hoist and some had inbuilt steps but within the user meetings it had been stated that they were not adequate in terms of handrails etc.  Users had been quite clear that it might deter them if they had to access the pool by hoist due to privacy and dignity issues

-        An option appraisal was to submitted to the Directors the following week.  There would then be a meeting with NHS Rotherham followed by a number of meetings set up, jointly fronted by NHS Rotherham and RFT, with users on the consequences of the review.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the comments of the Select Commission be fed into the review.

(2)  That a letter be sent to the Chief Executives/senior representatives of the Rotherham Foundation Trust, Clinical Commissioning Group and PCT Cluster Board expressing the Commission’s concerns regarding the review of the Park Rehabilitation Centre.