Kentish Express Ashford & District
Anger over empty beds at care facility
A ward at a care facility has been mothballed for more than a year because NHS and county council bosses are conducting a ‘bed review’.
The 15-bed Benenden West ward at West View Integrated Care Centre in Tenterden has been closed since July last year - meaning patients are being deprived of vital beds.
A member of staff at the Plummer Lane site, who the Kentish Express has chosen not to name, revealed the ward is lying idle because of red tape.
The situation has arisen because Ashford Clinical Commissioning Group and Kent County Council (KCC), who share the Plummer Lane site, are debating how the ward should be best used.
Patients looked after at West View, which has a total of 60 beds, are a mixture of those living with dementia, people on respite breaks and those in need of rehabilitation.
Harriet Powell’s 97-year-old mother, Meryl Turner, is recovering from cardiovascular surgery at Kent and Canterbury Hospital and has just been refused a place at West View.
Mrs Powell said: “I asked for a place for my mother at West View but faced a complete bureaucratic brick wall and it’s ghastly to think there are [unused] beds there in Tenterden, where she can be visited by friends.
“She’s been to West View three times before and she needs that halfway house between dependency at hospital and living at home.
“It’s a place where staff watch patients and check things like they are able to get themselves up and dressed and make a cup of tea without burning themselves.
“They can socialise and regain their independence and for my mother if she gets a place in West View it will make going home much easier for her.”
Tenterden town councillor Roy Isworth, a consultant urologist, who was behind a long-running campaign to address the partially-utilised East Cross clinic in Tenterden, has condemned the situation at West View.
Cllr Isworth said: “It’s deplorable the beds are not being used.
“These type of beds are a halfway house between an acute bed and going home and people should be treated close to home.”
He also claimed the lower ground floor of West View was a “very large space” that should be converted into a ward instead of being used for meetings.
“The partitions could be removed and there are already lifts and lavatories so it would be easily adapted for patients,” he said.
“The idea that you have a vast space for meetings is absurd.”
Retired Ivy Court Surgery GP Raymond Crawfurd said of the ward closure: “I think it’s something that needs to be sorted out quickly so the ward can be open and used for patients.”
Tenterden town councillor Sue Ferguson first spotted Benenden West closed-off when visiting a relative at West View.
She said: “Heads should be knocked together.
“It’s nonsense that the William Harvey is full up with patients and there are beds closed off at West View.
“Patients are suffering waiting for the NHS and KCC to make up their minds.”
Mrs Powell added: “I would like [the NHS and KCC] to resolve this crisis and let the old folk who need the beds have them. It just seems a bit criminal that the beds are there but no one is allowed to take them up.”