Trust delays Bishop's Castle Hospital beds decision to see if it has done enough to recruit staff

Shropshire Community Health Trust has commissioned a new report to consider whether it has done enough to recruit staff to fill gaps and says it needs time to consider this.

Trust chief executive Patricia Davies says it recognises that there is an "enormous strength of feeling amongst the local community."

The 15 beds at the hospital remain unused and the trust has been criticised for 'not doing enough' to fill posts.

Ms Davies said that a meeting called to decide whether the trust will hand back its contract on running the beds will now take place in Bishop's Castle in September. It had been due to take place in August 3.

She said: "The trust has been pleased with the level of response and engagement from the public on the issue of the Bishop’s Castle inpatient service and would like to thank those that have given their time to share their views.

"The board recognises that it has a difficult decision to make and that there is an enormous strength of feeling amongst the local community.

"It has therefore been committed to making sure that staff, patients, carers and the wider public and stakeholders are involved in the decision being made and have had every reasonable opportunity to provide their views.

"We have adapted and extended the engagement process where possible to ensure this is the case."

She said it is clear that the "trust should further explore the recruitment opportunities for the area".

But the trust doesn't want to delay the matters if it means repeating a recruitment attempt that has been unsuccessful. so it is asking for an independent report to tell it if it can do any more.

"We would not wish to delay making an important decision simply to repeat the same attempts already made over the last 18 months, as there is no reason to expect these would yield any different result," said Ms Davies.

"Therefore, in listening the concerns raised, the board decided to commission an independent recruitment report with the aim of providing two key assessments; firstly of the trust’s recruitment attempts to date and whether these have been sufficient and secondly of the labour market we are seeking to recruit from and whether there is anything different we could explore.

"In light of this additional work, we will not be in a position to make a decision at the public board meeting on August 3 as the board would like this information available to be considered as part of their decision.

"Accordingly, the agenda item planned for the decision on the Bishop’s Castle Inpatient Service is being deferred to the meeting on September 7."

Ms Davies added that a decision has been made to hold the meeting in public.

"Whilst the September meeting would ordinarily be a private board meeting, the trust is going to hold a session in public to discuss the Bishop’s Castle report and make it’s decision to enable staff and members of the public to attend and observe if they wish," she said.

"The meeting is planned to take place in Bishop’s Castle and the time and venue will be confirmed shortly."

She added that the trust understands while there may be disappointment that the decision is being delayed, it hopes this demonstrates the "seriousness with which the board is taking its duty to ensure that any decision is based on the fullest and most thorough information possible and that if there are further options to successfully recruit that these will be explored".

Bishop's Castle Lib Dem Councillor Ruth Houghton said she welcomed the independent review.

She said: “We have been concerned about the staff recruitment process ever since the beds were temporarily closed so welcome the independent review into the recruitment activity that has been undertaken.

"Hopefully this will identify some more creative recruitment initiatives that could be implemented at Bishop’s Castle.”