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More cuts at the Royal Free
Another ward to close as in-debt hospital loses contract to treat some elderly
ONE more ward will close and an expensive hospital building could be sold off following news the Royal Free has suffered another financial setback.
Plans to move elderly rehabilitation services from the Annie Zunz ward to St Pancras Hospital from April will force the closure and will impact on the future of Queen Mary’s House, East Heath Road, Free chief executive Andrew Way announced on Tuesday.
The Hampstead hospital, which has been desperately clawing its way out of a £35-million deficit, has lost a contract with Camden Primary Care Trust to provide rehabilitation care beds for elderly patients.
Mr Way told a Town Hall Health Scrutiny Committee meeting this week: “The Royal Free very much supports this.
“The natural consequence will be a substantial amount of income will be lost and the committee should be aware that we will close a ward. If we have no income we can’t provide this service so we will close Zunz and it’s the right decision.
“We’ve no services of our own (at Queen Mary’s) and have been looking at the sorts of services we can provide there. Over time it’s anticipated the role of Queen Mary’s will reduce.”
Speaking after the meeting he added: “It’s the right thing for patients but the wrong thing for the Trust. We’ve been trying to find things to put back at Queen Mary’s House and the services they want to put into St Pancras would have been appropriate. Now we don’t have anything to put into Queen Mary’s but that’s one of the things we’ll have to explore.”
The Royal Free has since refused to answer a list of questions presented by the New Journal, including how much income it expects to lose, how many staff are on the ward, if Queen Mary’s will be sold and how much the hospital’s deficit stands at, instead releasing a statement promising to consult staff.
The Annie Zunz ward, which specialises in elderly care, was featured in the New Journal last year with reports that staff were too busy to feed patients emerged. Geoff Martin, of NHS pressure group London Health Emergency said: “It sounds like they are going to be uprooting patients and shifting them around the system to meet financial targets. Shifting elderly patients tends to accelerate morbidity rates.”
He added: “The Royal Free is losing capacity and that’s going to impact on the ability to provide care where and when people need it. It’s another exercise in asset-stripping. I bet speculators are queuing up and licking their lips at making a fast buck from another building the NHS will need in the future.”
A Camden PCT spokeswoman said: “Rehabilitation services, mainly for older people, should be provided from a community based service, to focus on getting people back to independent living in their own homes wherever possible.
“It is generally accepted that people should stay in an acute bed only as long as they need to be there to get medically fit.
“UCLH patients have been going to St Pancras Hospital for some years. We have recently improved therapy support to these beds, and have been able to get people back home quicker as a result.
“People will be supported back to independence by a single service which will help them get back on their feet in the hospital, and carry on supporting them when they are ready to return home.
“We have now decided to give the same service to people who have been in-patients at the Royal Free Hospital. Around 11 beds are used for Camden patients.”
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