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South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust 10 November 2004 South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT) re-states its commitment to providing intermediate care beds at Thornbury Hospital.The PCT is committed to the development of services at Thornbury Hospital. It is currently consulting upon proposals to develop more outpatient services at Thornbury, in a £3.5m extension to the Health Centre. If, after full public consultation, a separate proposal from the local Mental Health Trust to transfer the mental health beds on Grace Ward to Blackberry Hill Hospital is approved, then the PCT would like to use Grace Ward for intermediate care. In this situation, the PCT would use Grace Ward to extend and develop intermediate care - active rehabilitation to enable people to get better quickly after an illness or operation. Having two wards (Henderson and Grace), would mean that we could care for men and women separately and develop more physiotherapy support on the wards. Developments in intermediate care in the area have proved very successful in allowing many patients to leave hospital earlier and to have concentrated rehabilitation. The local Mental Health Trust (the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust), which runs Grace Ward, believes that it can provide better care for people at Blackberry Hill Hospital because it would provide separate wards for men and women. It would also allow people who are more frail to be nursed separately from people who have more aggressive symptoms, resulting in better care for all concerned. The Trust is aware that such a move would mean that relatives would have further to travel when visiting patients in Blackberry Hill Hospital. The Trust is looking at ways of addressing this problem. Public consultation on the Mental Health Trust's proposals for Grace Ward is due to start in January 2005. |