Anger as £5m Plymouth hospital unit shuts a year after opening

Plymouth medical chiefs are expected to shut a £5m hospital unit which only opened last year. University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) has already closed one ward in the Discharge Assessment Unit (DAU), at Mount Gould, and is reviewing another - with staff predicting its days are numbered.

The trust said the DAU, where patients were sent from Derriford Hospital before being allowed home, had been a success but is no longer needed. But staff say the unit is still vital and have branded the closure “a cost-cutting exercise”. One person said: “This will increase pressure at Derriford going into winter, with ambulances queuing outside already.”

UHP and Livewell Southwest jointly opened the DAU in June 2023 with much fanfare and MP Luke Pollard doing the honours. Two new wards were created - called Saltram and Lopes - so medically fit patients could be sent from Derriford Hospital to the facility to fully recover before returning home.

The unit was paid for with £5m from NHS England, and set up in partnership with NHS Devon Integrated Care Board, Plymouth City Council and community partners including Age UK and Herts Urgent Care (HUC - formally Devon Doctors). It was staffed by UHP and Livewell nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and therapeutic support workers who monitored and assessed patients before they were discharged.

The unit was split into two wards, each with four bays, with six beds in each, and two side rooms, giving a total of 52 beds. But the Saltram ward has now been closed and hospital chiefs are reviewing the Lopes facility.

A UHP spokesperson said the DAU had been a hit and had increased the number of patients allowed home with a care package in place from 23% in January 2023 to 47% in January 2024 and added: “We opened the unit last year to support patients who no longer required acute care and were waiting to go home or to the right place of care. It has been a huge success, and we are so proud of the service that our amazing staff have provided.

“However, we have been working with our partners and are assured that there is enough capacity for patients to go directly home and/or receive the care in the right place. This is the best option as patients can decondition in hospital beds, compared to their own homes.”

They said: “We have already de-escalated one ward as the capacity in the community has improved and we are now reviewing the need for the second ward. We are discussing this with staff currently.

“Our aim is for 75% of our patients to go ‘home first’ with the right support, which is what patients also tell us they want. Our purpose and commitment to our population is to provide the right care in the right place at the right time and we remain committed to do this as this is the best option for patients and one we are passionate about.”

PlymouthLive has been contacted by staff who are concerned about moves to shut the DAU, with some saying a one-month consultation on closure of the Lopes ward has already begun. It is feared staff will be “scattered into the system just before Christmas".

The person said: “This ward was opened last year but now they are planning closure. This is a cost cutting exercise reducing capacity in the face of massive pressure.”

Another said: “£5m was spent on this unit when it opened in June 2023 and now, 18 months later we are being told there is no use for us. Here at DAU we re-enable patients to feel confident to be able to go home after having a fall or a hip replacement by giving them physio and building their confidence back up.

"There are not enough beds in Derriford Hospital but they are happy to close down another 26 beds here after closing down 26 beds in Saltram a few months ago. We are in winter now and the pressure will increase but it is still not enough to keep us open.

“My colleagues and I thought this was a forever job. Doing this to us right before Christmas is another blow and no consideration for the staff has been taken into account.”

Another worker said: “We love this DAU, helping people to get back on their feet and back to their own homes. We have had nothing but positive feedback from patients that have gone home from DAU.

“We feel unfairly treated as we were not told that this was a temporary unit and the job would be a temporary position when we all left stable jobs to come here. Now, a few weeks before Christmas, we will be left looking for another job, which is causing staff a great deal of anxiety.”

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