A COMMUNITY hospital will close if plans to cut the number of beds used for intermediate care in Bury are approved.

NHS Bury says they have too much ‘in-bed’ capacity in the borough  and plan to reduce the  three locations which currently provide in patient care to one, with any bed capacity needed then provided by the private sector.

The move will save the NHS around £1.8m per year and see that cash used for more patients to be  treated at home.

The move will reduce the number of NHS beds for such care from 68 to 36, all of which will be at Killelea House Intermediate Care Facility on Brandlesholme Road.

The trust say they require 49 beds to deliver services and that additional capacityto reach that number will be found by purchasing beds from the private care sector.

If the plans, which will go to public consultation later this year, are approved, Bealey Community Hospital, which provides 13 beds on Dumers Lane in Radcliffe will close next year.

The site was described by a medical chief  as ‘antiquated’ and ‘not fit for purpose’.

Another 19 beds will be lost from the service at at Heathlands Village in Prestwich

Clinical commissioners insist the borough only requires 49 beds and as it currently has 68, there must be a reduction of 19.

Intermediate care provides short-term rehabilitation to enable patients to regain their independence.

It aims to prevent people from being admitted to hospital, support people to return home after a recent admission and allows people to live at home rather than in a care home,.

Built in 1903 as Bealey Memorial Convalescence hospital , the Radcliffe building has had a number of purposes including as a maternity home, community hospital and now intermediate care facility.

A report was presented to NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group by Julie Gonda. Bury Council’s assistant director of commissioning and procurement for adult care services.

She said: “Despite having a lot of beds only 75 per cent of the bed capacity was used throughout the year meaning Bury is paying for beds that are empty.”

“This represents nearly £1.5m a year spent on beds that no one used.”

Howard Hughes, clinical lead on the project, said: “This is nothing to do with the wonderful staff we have at Bealey and the hard work they do.

“This is purely about the estate and the fact it isn’t fit for purpose.

“We have people on small wards who share toilet and washing facilities.

“We now know that the length of stay on our facilities is longer than it should be.

“This affects the speed of people’s recovery it actually affects the extent to which they do recover.

“We now need to commission beds which are more fit for purpose and this report makes that really clear.

“We are not serving patients very well if we delay this.

“We want to now purchase beds with en-suite faculties with proper wraparound care and deliver a much shorter length of stay before they get back home again.

“We shouldn’t be concerned about this antiquated facility.”

The NHS Bury commissioning board agreed that a public consultation should take place on the proposals.