Hospital ward for the elderly to close

Ward 23 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead will close

A hospital ward for elderly people will close, bosses have confirmed.

Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust said ward 23 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital will shut in order to deliver more care into the community, following a consultation period.

The trust said it believed closing the ward would allow it to provide "better care closer to people's homes" where "people recover faster".

Neil Halford, medical director for strategic relations, said the trust was "working hard" to address a "very challenging financial position" and it needed to be balanced with the safe care of patients.

The trust said it would expand its frailty services to seven days, provide additional dementia training for more staff and make all wards "dementia-friendly".

It said the decision would enable it to grow its "virtual ward capacity", which allows patients to be monitored remotely whilst at home.

"We know that people recover faster in their own homes and this move will allow us to expand our community services and provide better care closer to people's homes," Mr Halford said.

"As with the rest of the NHS, we have a very challenging financial position and are working hard to address this and ensure our financial sustainability.

"We need to balance this with the needs of our patients to provide high quality and safe care.

"In this case, we believe we can do that without the need for the beds on ward 23, as we can provide the additional support in the community to keep our patients closer to home."