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Hollybank House – CCG withdraw Better care Funding

by Ian Shires on 10 April, 2018

As a Councillor for Willenhall North, and a Cabinet member as well as a member of the Health and Wellbeing Board, I have to say just how disappointed I was when I became aware of Hollybank House losing the beds to care for patients coming out of the Manor.

The loss of the funding for these beds was, I am reliably informed, a decision of the Clinical Commissioning Group which is a clinically-led statutory NHS body responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services for the local area.

It needs to be said that this decision by the NHS’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was made against the wishes of the Council. I have made my feelings know and will be raising the issue at tonight’s Health and Wellbeing Board.

As I understand it, there are no plans to close Hollybank House itself, my understanding is it will remain as an important hub for healthcare professionals in the area.

Nevertheless, it is extremely disappointing to anyone who has ever been there that the “step-down” service Hollybank provides to patients coming out the Manor is coming to an end.

The CCG’s plan they say is to commission up to 20 beds from the Nursing Home market (one less than is available at Hollybank House). I have asked for further talks to get to understand just how the CCG is going to provide this service and how by doing so it is going to help improve the bed blocking situation at the Manor Hospital?

It is clear to me that ultimately the fault lies with the Conservative Government who simply haven’t given the NHS the funds it needs to do its job!

The NHS asked for £4 million just to see it through to the end of spring. The Chancellor gave £2.5 million (As a matter of interest he set aside £4 million for the Brexit negotiations).

The general Election last year saw a Conservative elected as MP for Walsall North. There is a direct correlation between how people vote and the consequences of the way in which they vote. The ending of Hollybank House’s step-down service is just one consequence of the decision to elect a Conservative MP.

The new MP has not voted in Parliament for the kind of money that is needed to support our NHS.

Sorry to end on a political note but it’s a fact, the withdrawal of the funding from the Better Care Fund for the Hollybank House Intermediate Care Service to give it its correct title, stems from the Government’s failure to give our NHS the funding it so desperately needs.

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