Marcus Jones has formally responded to a public consultation about the future of Bramcote Hospital in which he outlines his strong preference for the hospital to remain open.
The consultation by NHS Warwickshire entitled “North Warwickshire Intermediate Care and Bramcote Hospital”, explores three options for the fate of the hospital, which is a community hospital traditionally looking after frail older people for extended lengths of stay and is often used to meet social care needs.
The first option seeks people’s views about keeping the hospital open and continue the service as now, option two seeks views about using Bramcote Hospital for admission prevention and rehabilitation whilst the third asks for opinions about closing the hospital.
During his formal response, Marcus Jones writes that Bramcote Hospital is a “well loved health care facility which seems to provide excellent care and which has proved invaluable to the intermediate care needs of my constituents over many years” and goes on to mention the 1,600 signature strong petition and states that he is “strongly opposed to the closure of Bramcote Hospital.”
On 2 November 2010 Marcus asked a Parliamentary Question about the Bramcote Hospital consultation to the Health Minister, Simon Burns MP. The Minister replied that NHS Warwickshire's decision must have the support of the GP commissioners; must strengthen public and patient engagement (including local authorities); that there must be greater clarity about the clinical evidence base underpinning any proposals; and that any proposal must take into account the need to develop and support patient choice.
Commenting on the consultation response, Marcus said: “Many people will already be aware that I am strongly opposed to the closure of Bramcote Hospital and so too, I suspect, are the vast majority of my constituents.
“The overriding question that will be asked of NHS Warwickshire by my constituents concerns the provision of services between the North and the South of the county. Any possible closure of the Bramcote facility that is currently being consulted upon will inevitably be compared to provision in South Warwickshire. My constituents will be very aware that similar provision to those services provided at Bramcote is still readily available in South Warwickshire.
“Should Bramcote close this will leave what clearly appears be an inequitable situation to support the perception held by many in the north of the county: that the services provided in the north of Warwickshire are not always of the same quality or resource as that in the south of the county. My very strong preference is to keep Bramcote Hospital open as I have particular concerns for those patients who cannot make that difficult first step from acute care back into the home environment and who ought to continue to benefit from the good quality intermediate care that is currently provided at Bramcote.”