Hospital ward in Market Harborough reopens after being closed because of nursing shortages
By Tim Healy in Leicester Mercury
Originally published by East Midlands Liberal Democrats
Health campaigner Phil Knowles has called on the NHS to ensure it has enough staff to keep wards open in the future.
He was speaking after a 14 bed ward was reopened at a community hospital following a four month closure.
The ward at St Luke's Community Hospital in Market Harborough was closed in February because of a shortage of staff.
The ward which provides sub-acute medical care, rehabilitation and palliative care re-opened on Monday after a recruitment drive.
District councillor Knowles, who represents the area which includes the hospital, welcomed the re-opening.
But he said: ''St Luke's gives wonderful service to the community and the closure of the ward due to staff shortages quite rightly resulted in considerable criticism of the NHS.
"We need assurances that during the time the ward has been closed mechanisms have been put in place to identify any potential staff shortages in the future and to ensure staff appointments can be made to avoid any future closure and loss of facilities for the community.''
A spokesman for the Leicestershire Partnership Trust said: "The ward was closed temporarily in February this year as the number of permanent qualified nurses at the two St Luke's wards had fallen below the number deemed necessary to maintain a safe and high standard of care".
He added: "Following successful recruitment into vacancies across our community hospitals, we are now confident that we are able to resume the delivery of the high quality care on Ward 3."
Janet McNally, the matron in charge of St Luke's, in Leicester Road, said: "We are very pleased to be able to re-open Ward 3.
"We would like to thank all the staff on the site for their continued hard work and commitment during the ward closure."
She added: "We have also been able to use the temporary closure to upgrade the nurse-call system and increase the number of electrical points in the ward.
"These will further enhance our patient and staff experience."
The partnership said they are working closely with its recruitment team to have a rolling recruitment programme with a number of vacancies across the Trust advertised on the NHS jobs website.