Modern Healthcare must include community hospital beds

8.53.49pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 23rd Jul 2006

Andrew Houseley and Suffolk Coastal's Lib Dem councillors joined local protesters to lobby the joint PCTs meeting at Kesgrave on 25th January 2006. Sadly the PCTs decided to close a number of health units in Ipswich, Central Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal.

Andrew Houseley and the Lib Dem Mid Suffolk councillors have called on the government to invest fully in local health services, to include a community hospital in Hartismere and local improved community services that have been under-funded for years.

Recently, the government has announced not only a reprieve for many community hospitals throughout the country, but plans to build brand new facilities. For some reason this does not even include saving the existing Hartismere Hospital, let alone building a new facility.

Andrew Houseley, Parliamentary Spokesman for Central Suffolk & North Ipswich said:

"The Department of Health has realised it made a mistake regarding local hospitals as a thing of the past, and yet it has scandalously excluded Suffolk from its plans to invest in modern facilities.

"One valuable finding from last year's PCT review of services in Central Suffolk was the lack of community services delivered to people's homes. We have consistently argued that local healthcare should be delivered locally, at the point of need, and that must include hospital beds as well as better home based services. A modern facility could act as the centre for both kinds of services to be delivered, providing joined up healthcare for remote rural communities."