West Park Hospital plus documents June 2008

Pleasent 10 hours explore around the site with Imortal Owl, topped off with a drive around the live bit afterwards.













I found quite a few documents and news letters strewn about the place, I took some photos of some interesting articles, I've transcribed the first one. It gives some historical background to the hospital. I think the first one is from the mid-1980s.



Pattern of services for the mentally ill (SWRTHA)

Consultation

These comments were compiled following formal discussion with senior nursing staff and informal discussion with various individual nursing staff. The views of the nursing staff have also been forwarded to the unit management team, Nursing and Midwives Advisory Committee and also through various staff organisations.

Resource Planning/Patients Secondary

The consultation document has attempted to tackle the complex question of the psychiatric service for the whole region. It is acknowledged by staff that patients in all Health Authorities should be provided with an appropriate and fair service but the emphasis in the document is on resource planning with patient needs as a secondary consideration.

Local service/Time scale

The establishment of a locally based service has general support and in the direction that many Health Authorities have already moved towards. The time scale of the shift towards institutions is important so that proper rehabilitation programmes can be put into operation. The document proposes that the closure of the big mental hospitals will provide and could force some Health Authorities to rush into an unrealistic programme of implementation.

Effects on community and patients

No consideration is given in the document to the effect on local residents and the community at large if there is a sudden exodus of long term psychiatric patients. So not only would the patients suffer but also the community.

Back up services

Experience has shown that with even careful planning without the pressure for an exodus of patients the need for a back-up service has been evident.
There is a need for a “centre of excellence” where patients can return. This needs to be well staffed and have facilities to deal with patients who do not settle in the community or are unsuitable for the community. This “centre” is also required for staff training and in particular for nurses to gain experience necessary to work in the diverse facilities in the community.

Elderly mentally Ill

Many of the patients in the long stay hospitals are elderly and the document does not give thought to this. This group will always be demanding on nursing/care staff, and fragmenting the residential service would certainly be no cheaper and in fact be more expensive.

Over a number of years the facilities for geriatric patients (not mentally ill) has expanded on the West Park site. Smaller hospitals have closed and a new day hospital built for our local geriatric patients to attend.

Sale of Land

The money available from the sale of land will not be available for ever and we are concerned by the number of broad sweeping statements in the document which does not reassure staff that Mid-Surrey will benefit fully by this proposed sale.



Uncertainty

The uncertainty in this report has caused some voluntary services to wonder what is happening. On one hand they read the proposal to close West Park and sell the land on the other hand considerable amounts of money have been spent in providing geriatric services and much needed services for the health authority on the site.

District Service

Broad sweeping statements were mentioned earlier. In the document each health authority has not been looked at in detail enough. What will happen with the district service if the site is closed and sold? The West Park site provides a district base for many other functions including District Headquarters, Personnel and Finance departments, Community Health, Laundry, Gardens, Pathology service, Transport and some supplies and works. These would have to be provided elsewhere.

Catchment area

Another important point that the document does not acknowledge is that West Park Hospital unlike many others in the “Epsom cluster” is central within its own catchment area. Many of the patients already attend their local (West Park) hospital on a daily basis.

Shift to the community

Many of the above comments appear negative but the whole team with active nursing input have always reviewed the use of resources and there has been and will continue to be an accepted shift towards community.

RW Richens
Director of Nursing Services (mental illness)
Mid-Surrey Health Authority



I'll transcribe some more when I get time, If anybody is interested.

Good effort KB

Very interesting to read those reports about closing WP (if rather time-consuming for you!)

Ta matey,

Lb:jimlad:

the rest





58% of people think West Park Hospital should not close

This was one of the results of the questionnaire that Lo May Tsung (marketing executive) conducted with four groups – Patients/Carers, GPs, purchasers and staff, a few months ago.

Lo May wanted to get peoples views on whether West Park Hospital should close, the quality of care, management and environment of Parklands, their views on the National Health Service reforms, and the services offered by Parklands.

When it came to whether West Park Hospital should close, most of those who agreed it should close (21%) were purchases, 58% as we have said did not agree, 17% did not know.

Nursing care was rated very highly but the quality of management was not so favourably rated, however the environment at Parklands was seen as good. People felt that the NHS reforms had not been in place long enough for them to have an opinion but those that did give an opinion felt that the reforms had not improved the NHS or the Parkland’s services.

Overall people saw Parklands Mental Health Services in a favourable and positive way and an overwhelming majority agreed that existing and new community services should be developed, but not private fee paying services.
If you would like further details and results from the questionnaire please contact Lo May Tsung on (0372) 727811 ext 4215



Obituaries
Evelyn Street died here on 18/12/92 aged 84 years. She was admitted to Long Grove (Hospital) in 1932 and so has spent 60 years in hospital. We have traced two nephews but sadly they never knew their Aunt. The service was taken by the Rev. David Johnson







Water, Water everywhere

Those visiting or living at West Park Hospital will have noticed at various times in the last few weeks the water has been cut off. Why? Well your intrepid reporter paddled to the estates department to get some answers.

John Raybauld estates manager explained the problem. West park was built on a hollow piece of land so to begin with the basements of the buildings through which the water pipes went were above ground. Also at this time the Northern Underground line was being built in London; the clay displaced by the underground was brought down to West Park by rail and spread over the site of the hospital. So now if a water pipe on the site fractures, then estates have to dig down between 9-13 feet to reach the pipe.

Since December there have been 13 fractures or holes in waterpipes to deal with. This is due partly to the hard ground in December and partly to the brittle cast iron pipes which have been there for about 70 years. Because the pipes are so far beneath the service it can take a while for the water to seep up and be noticed. If possible the estates department try to warn people in advance when they need to turn the water off for repairs but that wasn’t possible with one pipe and some people were without water for two days.

Once a leak is discovered and repaired the estates department put in a valve so they can shut off part of the system rather than all of it. Readers will be happy to learn that the pipes show no respect for anyone, they have fractured by Janeford Ward and outside the Unit General Manager’s Office.

John Raybauld says the new replacement pipes ordered are plastic, he is also thinking of ordering a pair of ducks, several swans and some goldfish!

In our next issue we will carry a further update on the state of the pipes plus a feature on the West Park site. For instance, did you know there is a working well here?

Good stuff mate! That was a top explore...