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Next step taken in creation of new health services for Sudbury

22 December 2004

NHS organisations working to create new health services and facilities in Sudbury have taken the next step on the road to making their plans come to fruition

West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust and Suffolk West Primary Care Trust (PCT) have agreed to transfer the responsibility for the services and staff working in the town from one to another.

The move, about which members of staff are now being consulted, will enable the PCT, which has been responsible for leading the project to build the townıs new health and social care campus since April this year, to continue to involve staff in planning the new facilities and community services.

The transfer involves up to 168 people who work at the Walnuttree and St Leonardıs Hospitals in Sudbury providing a range of services from inpatient care to outpatient clinics, phsyio and occupational therapies as well as estates services.

The trusts are planning the transfer to take place in April 2005, following the presentation by the PCT of its plans for the new campus to the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority seeking permission to go ahead with the project.

The PCT intends to have a replacement for the Walnuttree Hospital completed by the end of 2007. Outpatient services at St Leonardıs will also move to the new campus.

"The transfer of responsibility for the employment of the people who work at the Sudbury hospitals is a very important step," said Tony Ranzetta, chief executive of the PCT.

"We are developing not only new buildings but, more significantly, new ways of serving the people of Sudbury and it is essential that members of staff are directly involved in making the decisions.

"This will ensure that the prime focus of the new development remains the delivering of primary and community-based care fit for the future."

Chris Bown, chief executive of the West Suffolk Hospitals Trust, who has committed up to £300,000 to be spent on fire safety measures at the Walnuttree Hospital building to keep it open while the new facilities are being built, said:

"This is another positive stage in the process of creating new and exciting health services in Sudbury. The future of these services is rightly in the hands of the PCT and it makes sense that Tony and his team can start to shape these as soon as possible. I am sure that members of staff will welcome the opportunity to be part of creating something new."

 

 

   
West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust