'Successful' rehabilitation unit at Whiteabbey Hospital to close amid funding pressures

A rehabilitation unit at Whiteabbey Hospital is set to close due to funding pressures.

The Whiteabbey Nightingale Enhanced Therapies and Rehabilitation Unit was first commissioned in November 2020 as a regional post-Covid stepdown service.

Since then the 23-bed unit has transitioned to become a regional fractures / general rehabilitation facility.

The Northern Trust says it has been "operating successfully as such", with evidence of "strong outcomes" and an average length of stay consistently below 14 days.

Funding was allocated by the Health Department until the end of the financial year.

However, the Northern Trust says, "reflecting wider budgetary pressures, no recurrent funding source has been identified beyond the end of March 2023."

Attempts to put in place a multi-year budget at Stormont failed before the collapse of the power-sharing institutions.

The Northern Trust said it will meet with staff and their representatives to consider alternative employment either on the Whiteabbey Hospital site or elsewhere within the trust.

"As a result the unit now requires to be wound down on a phased basis, with final closure at the end of March 2023," it added.

A statement continued: “The NHSCT was honoured to host this regional service which was commissioned and funded by the DoH and we are proud of the outcomes achieved for the patients who availed of this service.

“Community beds are a vital part of our patient journey in that they afford the opportunity for patients to avail of a period of assessment or rehabilitation in bed-based facilities to maximise their personal abilities, often following a period of acute hospitalisation.

“Over the past few months we have been working up a long-term community bed model and we plan to go out to formal public consultation on this model early in the next financial year.

"We are committed to maintaining inpatient rehabilitation on the Whiteabbey site, and this will form part of the overarching community bed model."

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