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Edward Hain Community Hospital, St Ives

Edward Hain Community Hospital

The Penwith community services project covers the following eight GP surgeries, which have a registered population of 65,170 people:

West Penwith:

Alverton Practice
Cape Cornwall Surgery
Morrab Surgery
Rosmellyn Surgery
Sunnyside Surgery

East Penwith:

Bodriggy Health Centre
Marazion Surgery
Stennack Surgery

Edward Hain Community Hospital is owned by NHS Property Services, and leased to Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CFT), which provides hospital services. The hospital hosts a number of outpatient clinics each week, and a minor injury unit is available at the Stennack Surgery within the town.

The hospital’s inpatient beds were temporarily closed to new admissions in February 2016, due to fire safety concerns. The last patient left in August 2016. In the 12 months prior to the hospital’s inpatient beds closing, 174 people were admitted to an inpatient bed, and of these, 111 (64 percent) of these people lived in Penwith. The inpatient beds were occupied on average 93 percent of the time.

In 2019 (January-September) a day service winter reablement pilot led by Age UK was trialled in Edward Hain community hospital to test whether this type of provision could reduce winter pressures by providing additional community support to enable discharge. The pilot was delivered by Age UK working in collaboration with CFT, Edward Hain League of Friends, local GPs, clinicians, NHS Property Services, local councillors and the voluntary sector. During the nine month pilot, 27 people were supported. The pilot has finished and a learning report has been produced by Age UK and an evaluation report by NHS Kernow. These reports have provided information for Cornwall Council's future strategy for the commissioning of modernised day services and opportunities which is planned for 2021.

Events

Penwith Integrated Community Services

Drop in sessions

As part of on-going engagement about the work to review community services in the Penwith area, and what this means for the future of Edward Hain Community Hospital in St Ives, three drop-in sessions were held for the public to attend.

The drop-in sessions took place on 12 September 2019 at the St Ives Leisure Centre, 17 September at The Knut, St Just and 3 October at the St John’s Hall, Penzance.

We wanted to provide opportunities for people to come to talk to us about the local needs and to hear about the engagement work completed. We listened to people’s varied views about the health and care services provided across west Cornwall and what was important to them. It was valuable to hold these events to meet people who had not yet had an opportunity to meet people who had not yet had an opportunity to attend a community workshop.

Public attendees: 11 in total.

The key themes raised by attendees:

Ensure that everyone is aware of the discussions being held.
It is important to focus on providing preventative pathways in the community rather than reacting to issues and people ending up in hospital.
Recognition of the pressure on local acute hospitals and concern for staff working in the environment.
The importance of keeping people close to home or at home for care and support.
Most attendees understood the implications of the Edward Hain community hospital fire risk assessment and requirements to carry out extensive work.
Consider transport cost and times for both patients and staff in when reviewing any service options.

All of these issues and ideas will be considered throughout the engagement and decision making process.