THE use of modern technology and other support for people in their own homes is reducing the need for hospital beds, the Chair of a Gloucestershire health trust has said.

Ingrid Barker, who chairs the Gloucestershire Health and Care Trust, was responding to concerns expressed by the Forest Health Forum about the reduction in bed number when the new hospital at Cinderford opens.

Forum chairman Mr Albert Weager said many patients leaving general hospitals “stepped down” to community hospitals such as Lydney and the Dilke because they could not return home.

Mr Weager said: “We have a lot of people in acute hospitals who, when they come out, are stepping down to community hospitals

“Are you able to tell us that the step down capacity across the county is sufficient to absorb the surplus of patients when you go to a 24-bed hospital because that does worry and concern me a lot.

“We need to be reassured that people are not being kicked out because there is nowhere for them to go.

“What is going to happen if you have too many patients and there is nowhere for them to go?”

Mrs Barker said technology meant that more services could be provided in people’s homes rather than needing a hospital admission.

She said: “Things like intravenous therapy which would have been done in hospital are now being done in people’s home.

“People are doing hi-tech stuff in people’s homes which previously would have needed a hospital admission.

“It’s not like Call the Midwife anymore.”

The trust’s new chief executive, Mr Douglas Blair, told the forum more people were being discharged from hospital straight into their homes through the Home First programme

He said: “That is improving and we are discharging more people and doing what most people which is going straight back home rather than another bed.

“We think we can rely on a slightly lower number of beds because of the improvements in taking people directly home.

“We have more people supporting people to go directly home.

“We are boosting resources and it’s based on the fact we don’t want somebody to go to another bed if we can avoid it.

“That is the plan and there are good signs its working.

“We are not waiting to have fewer beds and then put the plan in place, we have put the plan in place already.”

At the forum meeting at the West Dean Centre in Bream last Tuesday (June 6), there were also questions about the provision of outpatients services in the “gap” – expected to be several months – between Lydney Hospital closing and the opening of the town’s new medical centre.

The health officicals said the trust is looking for a suitable location but they seemed less than keen on extending the lifespan of the existing hospital as a solution.

In the long-term the services will transfer to the proposed medical centre in the former Co-op building but that will not be ready for months after the hospital closes following the opening of the new community hospital in Cinderford.

Fiona Smith, the project manager for the new £20 million hospital Smith told the forum: “Any potential development is not likely to start building until 2024 and so be ready for use by our services before 2025.

“As a trust we are recognising there will be a gap for the provision of our services which we want to continue in the south.

“Our remit is to find a solution, to find a location for our services in that gap.

Former district councillor Lynn Sterry asked: “There’s a gap – why can’t you continue using Lydney Hospital to plug the gap?”

Mr Blair said the main focus was getting the new hospital in Steam Mills ready for opening in February next year.

He added: “We recognise there is a gap in the local services that need to be here but our main aim right now is the building of the new hospital and commissioning that in the new year.

“To keep an existing building which is having most of the services moved into a brand new building...there’s possibly a different way and a better way of doing that if it keeps that local presence of services for that interim period.

“It’s always a balance but when you take most of the services and staff to a new place, you can’t necessarily do both in the same place.”

Mrs Sterry said she found the response “bizarre”.

The new hospital at Cinderford, which will replace the current Lydney and Dilke hospitals, is expected to open in February next.

The official name of the new facility will be the Forest of Dean Community Hospital.