THE NHS is planning on moving 12 dementia inpatients in Southampton to Gosport and Basingstoke.

The main reason is to free up beds in Southampton for those with ‘functional’ illnesses such as schizophrenia – something said to be of ‘greater demand’.

The NHS says that it won’t have a negative impact because most of the Southampton inpatients are from other parts of Hampshire.

However Southampton City Council deems it to be a ‘substantial change’ meaning Southern NHS Foundation Trust will have to do further consultations before going ahead with the move.

Southern NHS Foundation Trust currently offers 14 ‘organic dementia’ beds in Southampton’s Western hospital in its Beaulieu ward, 14 in Gosport War Memorial Hospital’s Poppy ward – and 18 in Basingstoke’s Parkland Hospital’s Elmwood Ward.

The move will see the 14 beds in Southampton relocated to the other two Hampshire hospitals.

The 14 spare beds in Southampton will then be reallocated to inpatients with a functional illness.

Ron Shields, CEO of the Southern NHS Foundation Trust attended the city council’s health overview and scrutiny panel on June 29 to speak to councillors about the plans.

He said: “The number of people from Southampton using the organic beds are a minority.

“In part reflecting the younger population in Southampton, but the greater demand is on functional illness.

“Most of the patients coming to Southampton are not from Southampton.”

However, according to data released by the trust, just under 10 per cent are.

This means, if the move goes ahead, these patients could end up being relocated more than 30 miles away from their families.

Mr Shields said: “We will provide transport for patients with difficulties.

“Southampton residents are not disadvantaged.”

Some members of the council were not convinced.

Councillor Lorna Fielker, the cabinet member for health, said that it ‘is not just about paying’ but ‘the significant time to travel’.

She said: “I’ve become more and more troubled about this proposal to be honest and troubled about withdrawing those beds from Southampton.

“I’m not sure it is in the best interest of our residents.

“When it comes to mitigating, it’s not just about paying for people to travel – it’s actually significant time to travel whatever route is taken and that will have an impact on people who are working and also people who might be elderly and might have their own health problems.”

The cabinet member and deputy leader went on to talk about how Southampton is ‘being penalised (for) doing well’ – maintaining a service to keep patients at home.

“Southampton seems to be being penalised (for) doing so well to keep people out of those beds.

“We don’t have a lot of demand because we are working well in the city.

“That means our residents are getting something better than others.

“Does that not mean we should be looking to replicate what we’ve done here in other areas rather than just putting more beds there?”