South Pembrokeshire Hospital Project

Title of Project: South Pembrokeshire Hospital Project

What have we done?

A new Health and Social Care Resource Centre is being built at the South Pembrokeshire Hospital, Pembroke Dock.  The £4.2 million scheme will see the co-location of 35 NHS in-patient beds for intermediate and palliative care alongside five Community Care Reablement beds, and a Minor Injury Unit and Outpatients Department.  The Centre will provide modern day care facilities and jointly operated on-site rehabilitation and re-ablement resources.  When completed the new Resource Centre will combine services currently provided at South Pembrokeshire Hospital, Hawkstone Road Day Centre and Riverside Residential Home.  All of these facilities required modernisation to meet the ever increasing and changing demands on health and social care.

What are we trying to achieve and why is it important?

The Resource Centre is based on principles of joint working to provide services to support people in their homes for as long as possible.  Currently the hospital provides a comprehensive, highly valued service offering a range of hospital services for those who do not need the specialist services of Withybush General Hospital.

Traditionally, Pembrokeshire County Council have provided residential, day and home care in the area but this scheme will, through partnership working, allow these services to be enhanced and re-provided jointly with colleagues from the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust. 

Therefore under the scheme the hospital will become a Health and Social Care Resource Centre, rather than an NHS Community Hospital.  Co-location of home care, day care and re-ablement staff with health colleagues will set the scene for the further development of joint agency commissioned projects in the area.

How is it benefiting you?

The Resource Centre will be a single point of contact for health and social care requirements in the area, and will provide modern and purpose built facilities.  You will benefit from the joint commitment between local health and social care services to improving the quality of services that are provided to you.

The philosophy of the new Resource Centre will be to provide an environment, which enables people to achieve maximum independence. Advice, treatment and care will be based on genuine partnership with yourselves, families and carers. This support is being tailored to meet individual needs.

Evidence

This development will see the emphasis shift from a traditional model of care to one that will concentrate on intensive therapy and rehabilitation. It will increase the current capacity within community based Health & Social Care services to meet the challenging demands placed on the long term care of our older residents.

There is already a clear correlation between this model of care and reducing the dependency of those who require long-term care. It is envisaged that  this trend will continue when the new Resource Centre is commissioned in December 2006.

This development is the first of its kind in Wales and in order to measure its success a detailed performance management framework will be developed including ongoing consultation with those people who receive these services.