Kingston News

Kingston Hospital ward to be axed

By Clare Buchanan

12:14pm Friday 27th January 2012

Kingston Hospital is axing a ward in a move attributed to a reduced need for beds.

Derwent Ward, which looks after rheumatology, haematology and general medicine patients, is due to be closed from level six in the Esher Wing.

The hospital and Unison have not yet confirmed how many beds will be lost, when the ward will be closed and if any redundancies will be made.

However the hospital said that reduced lengths of patient stays means the need for beds has decreased.

A spokesman for Kingston Hospital NHS Trust said in the past 12 months the average hospital stay has been reduced from seven days to five to six days.

The spokesman said: “As most of our patients are now spending less time in hospital, we don’t need as many beds.

“As a result of this, the decision to close beds in Derwent Ward has been made so that resources can be reallocated where they are needed most.

“This has been decided with the best interests of both staff and patients, and it is expected that those working on Derwent Ward will be relocated to equivalent posts in other areas of the hospital.”

South West London NHS launched the Better Healthcare, Better Value review, which aims to find £64.5m of savings out of a £2.3bn budget, across hospitals in November last year.

Possible solutions in the review include reducing the number of maternity, accident and emergency and children’s wards across the trust.

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