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WE would like to express our support for the staff on Ford Ward at Fordingbridge Hospital.

While in-patient admissions at the hospital are suspended and the ward therefore temporarily closed during the external enquiry, the ward's staff are going through a period of personal turmoil.

We were told at our Executive Committee meeting on Monday that they will be re-deployed to other parts of the Trust.

We wish them all well and express a profound hope that they will return to the ward in due course. Indeed we strongly reaffirm our belief that Fordingbridge needs in-patient beds at the hospital.

It is not always possible to nurse patients in their homes for various reasons.

Sometimes it is because of the layout of their homes, because they live on their own or have a spouse who is incapacitated.

Elderly people without their own transport have considerable difficulty in reaching either Salisbury District Hospital or Bournemouth District Hospital and public transport links to these two facilities are very poor. The alternative, of sending patients to a rehabilitation bed in Lymington Hospital, is even more difficult for visitors.

By having no bed in our local hospital patients will be bed blocking in the District Hospitals.

It is particularly useful to have a local hospital where patients can recover from operations and rehabilitation before returning home.

The provision of respite beds on Ford Ward is also invaluable for many people.

We know that a new senior nurse has been appointment as nurse manager to work on the ward and that she is due to start in December.

She was a sister on the ward some years ago and is greatly respected.

We welcome this appointment, which is long over due, and we do hope to hear soon that beds will be reopened on Ford Ward as so many people are feeling vulnerable without the knowledge that patients have a hospital to go to if they require it.

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, The Friends of Fordingbridge Hospital

11:28am Thursday 22nd November 2007

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