Median Road Resource Centre to close
‘Soon-to-be mothballed’: The Median Road Resource Centre in Lower Clapton. Photograph: Healthwatch Hackney
A residential rehabilitation and respite centre providing a ‘home-like’ setting for patients recovering from an illness is set to close at the end of the month, Hackney Council has announced.
The Median Road Resource Centre in Lower Clapton offers a temporary home for up to six weeks, providing 24-hour clinical care for those leaving hospital as well as social care service for those too frail or lacking in confidence to return home.
Hackney Council has said that the closure “reflects the changing needs of patients and the desire of more people to recover from hospital treatment and be cared for in their own homes.”
The council says it has made arrangements to discharge the nine patients currently staying at the 37-bed care facility, which stopped accepting new admissions to its interim care beds in October 2014.
The residential centre will be replaced by a set of outpatient-focused services, the Re-ablement and Intermediate Care Service (RICS) based at Homerton Hospital and supported by the council, providing therapeutic support at home.
A council spokesperson said: “(RICS) will provide intensive, therapeutic support to people in their homes, bringing together services into one team, and providing bespoke one-stop support for patients. The new service will provide a single point of access, and extended hours, in response to patient feedback. Interim care will be provided in one of the council’s housing with care schemes, which will aim to build patients’ confidence and recovery in a supported, domestic setting before they return to their homes.
But Healthwatch Hackney have expressed concern over the handling of the “soon-to-be-mothballed” facility, saying that patient representatives involved with the redesign of RICS in Hackney were not aware of discussions to close the centre until after the decision was made.
Following an unannounced inspection last summer, a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report on the care unit published last July found that staff did not always follow procedures to protect people from the risk of abuse, and found vulnerable patients were not being safeguarded from abuse there. The CQC also reported that patients “were not consistently treated with dignity and respect”.
Cllr Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care said:
“It is sad to say goodbye to a facility that helped so many Hackney people over the years, and in its time was a trailblazer, and I want to pay tribute to everyone, past and present, who worked at Median Road. Now it’s time to move the service forward again to provide a sustainable, high-quality service for the future.”
A spokesperson from the Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “‘The new RICS service will be led by our clinicians and will ensure that patients get the highest standard of intermediate care to help them avoid admission to hospital where appropriate and to assist them in getting back home as quickly as possible when admission is unavoidable.”
The council is examining potential uses for the building, including a proposal for a medium term conversion into temporary accommodation for homeless families, and a longer-term use as a residential are home.
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