Bristol City Council is shutting its last remaining rehab centre for older patients who need care after leaving hospital before going home. Cabinet members are set to approve the closure of East Bristol Intermediate Care Centre to save money, with more than 25 all-female staff being made redundant or redeployed.
The service will be taken up by community healthcare provider Sirona at other sites. It comes less than a year after council leaders controversially shut South Bristol Rehab Centre.
Despite initial promises that employees could transfer to Sirona, which runs a similar service at South Bristol Community Hospital, that fell through and the carers were left in limbo for months before having to take either voluntary severance, redundancy or other jobs. The East Bristol centre’s fate will be sealed by mayor Marvin Rees’s cabinet tomorrow (Tuesday, May 2), following a decision at the budget-setting full council in February to cut the cost of running it altogether.
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A cabinet report said: “Rehabilitation services are not usually provided by local authorities and are a discretionary service for the council, and there is agreement across the health and social care system that the community health provider has the skills and facilities to deliver this service in line with standard practice nationwide.”
It said staff would be consulted on their options and the council would “comply with the obligation to seek suitable alternative employment for all employees at risk of redundancy to mitigate against any compulsory redundancies”. But the report added that changing to a new team or role could be difficult because 58 per cent of the 25.5 full-time equivalent employees were over 50 and had worked at the council for a long time.
It said the other option would be for NHS partners to take over the rehab centre but “they are not in a position” to do so. “They already provide rehabilitation services at other sites across the city which will ensure that a continued high-quality provision is available for citizens, and the [health] system priority is to increase the number of people returning home with care and support in place of offering additional community intermediate care beds,” the report said.
“This has meant that the only viable option for the council to progress is the proposal to stop service delivery at East Bristol Intermediate Care Centre.
“The centre closure will not immediately affect the office staff based on the site, but the future use of the accommodation will need further consideration.
“If the proposal to end the rehabilitation service is approved, then part of the site will become vacant.
“There will still be office-based staff from the council’s reablement service and Sirona Care & Health in part of the building, however the reduced capacity will mean that the site will need review and full options appraisal with the council’s property service about the preferred future use.”
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