NHS leaders plotting a future for Bath’s main hospital are well positioned when funding becomes available, but say they won’t be holding their breath waiting for a £450m injection.
Last year, the Royal United Hospital had a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to bid for the nine-figure sum after Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged in a manifesto to build 40 new hospitals.
Simon Cook, who runs the local health infrastructure programme, said this week that figure was a “pre-pandemic number” and that trusts can now define what they think they need.
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The funding announcement prompted the RUH to start considering a future model of care, and it now has a head start on other trusts.
On March 8, Mr Cook told members of the Bath Control Committee and North East Somerset Council: ‘We don’t want to build a white elephant on the hill, we want to invest in an asset that will be a benefit and not a burden for future generations.
“We try to position ourselves as a health economy to take advantage of any capital funding as it becomes available.
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“During the pandemic, as a nation, we have spent enough to build a shiny hospital in just about every city, but all we have in return are masks. There is a huge challenge in terms of finances.
The RUH conducted a consultation on a new care model focusing on prevention, wellness and a personalized care model. Mr Cook said it gave him an edge over other trusts and he was not looking to make ‘difficult’ changes to the estate, adding: ‘The outpatient model has fundamentally not changed since 1947 and in fact there is a huge opportunity to change that as we emerge from the pandemic.
“That means we have quite a different potential footprint at the RUH site. We’re not going to get everyone to line up for a 10 minute chat at the RUH; in the future, we seek to let the community know this and, in some cases, avoid the need for these appointments.
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“We don’t reconfigure services, we don’t move key elements of services. There will always be A&E, maternity services, intensive care, all those really vital assets.
“We have a reputation for being able to deliver, a real estate strategy based on this model of care, and we are not offering a program that will not be sustainable from a planning perspective with local residents – we are not looking not build a 10-storey toilet block on the Combe Park site.
“We are not looking at an all or nothing approach where we have to have a billion pound hospital or nothing at all. The program has been set up in such a way that it can be done in incremental stages so that as funds become available, the RUH is well placed to take advantage of them early on.
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Mr Cook said the £450million ‘opening gambit’ was a ‘pre-pandemic figure’ and trusted leaders can now define what they think they need which will be more than that figure long-term.
“We are planning a trip where we can do it over 10 to 15 years,” he told advisers.
“There are a series of progressive steps that we have towards this overall blueprint for the future that the trust has been able to develop. We believe this is a realistic and practical way to move towards this future state.
“If we wait for all the money to come at once, we’ll be holding our breath.”
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-03-10 14:48:02
