Knighton and East Radnor Community Focus - Issue 6
This bulletin keeps you updated on the development of NHS services in Knighton and East Radnorshire including Knighton Community Hospital.
A new sensory garden in Knighton Hospital thanks to local League of Friends
Staff at Knighton Community Hospital have praised their local League of Friends for their kind donation to cover the cost of a new sensory garden for patients, residents, staff and visitors. The infrastructure of the garden – paving, planters and gravel has now been completed by contractors and planting in the raised beds is to take place shortly.
Powys Teaching Health Board’s Christina Creemer (above right) thanked the group: “We cannot thank our local League of Friends enough. Thanks to their donation we’ve been able to get someone in to make a tired looking area into a welcoming place that will be amazing once the planters are in bloom.”
And League of Friends Trustee Rebe Brick (above left) commented: “We are really pleased to be able to pass on the donations from members of our community to improve the facilities at Knighton hospital in this way.”
The new garden will be for the use of people who are within the maternity ward, using the five reablement beds, living at Cottage View, for staff of the hospital as well as patients accessing outpatient appointments at the hospital.
Reassurance over hospital
Powys Teaching Health Board’s Assistant Director of Community Services has moved to reassure residents in the area over the future of the hospital. David Farnsworth commented: “From time to time I still keep hearing people say that Knighton Hospital has closed. Well, that would be news to all of the clinical staff who work – and will continue to work – there.” “There are a number of outpatient clinics held at Knighton hospital and we are looking to increase the number and range of clinics. We have a maternity unit and local Mums are continuing to have their babies locally. What has changed is that, despite our best efforts, we have not been able to recruit enough nursing staff to safely cover the in-patient ward and this has been temporarily closed since 2020. This ward – the Panpwnton Ward – has been temporarily converted into four re-ablement rooms.
“These rooms provide an environment for patients who are not quite well enough to go home but don’t need to be in an acute hospital (such as those in Shrewsbury or Hereford). We call this a ‘step-down’ service. Residential care staff from Knighton look after these patients with input from local clinicians.”
Since 2020 the health board has been working hard to recruit registered nurses to join the inpatient team at Knighton Hospital. Whilst there has been some interest, sadly this has not reached the levels needed to run a ward 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mr Farnsworth added: “I must stress that we are absolutely committed to the continued development of services for people in Knighton and East Radnorshire and will be continuing to work with you to ensure a bright future for Knighton Hospital.”
Care Inspectorate Wales visit – result due soon
The Cottage View residential home was recently visited by Care Inspectorate Wales as part of their routine inspection work. And now the home, led by Residential Care Manager Christina Creemer, is awaitng the results of its inspection report. The previous report on Cottage View (from September 2022) can be found at www.careinspectorate.wales.
Death of a colleague
It is with great sadness that we heard of the passing of our colleague Sue Weston recently. Sue had been a member of the catering team at Knighton for 14 years and was well loved by all. We would like to send our condolences to Sue’s family, friends and colleagues for their loss at this difficult time.
Workshop – Better Together/Sustainable Powys Teaching Health Board
Representatives of community groups covering the Knighton and Presteigne areas took part in a joint Powys County Council and Powys Teaching Health Board recently at Knighton’s community centre. The half day session was held to share information and seek feedback about how the council and the health board respond to the current and growing challenges that the county faces.