HEART and urology services in Daventry are under threat because patients are preferring to use Northampton General Hospital (NGH).
The hospital rents space at Danetre Hospital in London Road, Daventry, to provide a range of services to the west of the county in order to get patient care out into the community and maximise its income.
But a report discussed by NGH’s board las
t month showed patient activity at Danetre was significantly less than expected.
Cardiology and urology services in particular are down and NGH is now considering placing its entire involvement at the hospital on six-monthly review to confirm the trust is still getting value for money.
Helen O’Shea, deputy chief executive, said: “The board wanted to know if services at Danetre were profitable and if we needed to continue it.
“We now know Danetre is 22 per cent below plan for day cases and 30 per cent below for out-patients at the moment. It seems many patients don’t want to go out to Daventry, they want to stay in Northampton.
“There are some areas which will not be able to recover. Urology and cardiology are two of those.”
The report says patients treated by NGH’s urology and plastic surgery teams are still choosing to go to Northampton rather than Daventry, despite Danetre hospital having new facilities.
Cardiology at Danetre has been affected by the opening this year of the NGH Heart Centre. All Danetre activity, with the exception of one clinic, has been transferred to the new centre meaning the under-performance for cardiology is set to continue.
NGH has already lost the contract for dental services at Danetre and is in talks about ceasing to hold theatres there on Fridays because of more renal and heart patients using the new centres in Northampton. To try to reverse the trend a publicity campaign is being launched to ensure Northamptonshire patients know about what is on offer at Danetre.
NGH’s trauma and orthopaedics department is now undertaking a clinic at Danetre and there is an infertility clinic due to start there this month.
Paul Forden, NGH’s new chief executive, stressed that Danetre Hospital was strategically important to NGH and suggested that the board could take a longer rather than shorter commitment of five years at the town’s hospital. A new report on Danetre will come back to the board in 2009.
The full article contains 408 words and appears in Daventry Express newspaper.
