NHS
Coming to a site near us before long? Hospitals knocked down to build houses which nurses can’t afford
from The Guardian 9 January 2018
Four out of five homes built on former NHS sites that have been sold off to private developers will cost more than nurses can afford, according to new research.
Fifty-nine NHS sites, including many former hospitals, have already been sold to housebuilders as part of the government’s public land sale programme to boost housing supply. But the large majority will be unaffordable to nurses, according to the New Economics Foundation (NEF) thinktank. It found that in London none of the homes will be in reach.
Neither are the new developments adding much to the supply of affordable or social housing, the NEF found. Across the UK, only one in 10 of the homes built on the sold-off NHS sites analysed will be available at social rent. The average sale price is expected to be £315,000 – 10 times a nurse’s average annual salary.
The Royal College of Nursing has previously warned that high housing costs could force 40% of nurses out of the capital by 2021. For newly qualified nurses the price of a typical first-time-buyer home is 16 times their salary in inner London, seven times in the West Midlands and six times in the north-west of England, the RCN said.
In Colchester, Essex, the former psychiatric hospital Severalls is being transformed into more than 700 homes, none of which will be affordable to nurses and only 87 of which are classed as “affordable”, the NEF research showed. In St John’s Wood, north London, an NHS site has been sold to developers building three five-bedroom homes expected to cost around £3.75m – 121 times a nurse’s annual salary. There will be no affordable housing.
Persimmon, whose chief executive, Jeff Fairburn, is in line for a bonus worth over £100m, is developing the site of Pontefract general infirmary in West Yorkshire with 117 homes, only seven of which will be social or affordable housing. However, the prices are mostly below £200,000.
The report, No Homes for Nurses, estimated it would take a midwife over a century to afford the deposit for a market-rate home in Enfield where Chase Farm hospital is being redeveloped into 138 residential dwellings. Only 19% of them will be affordable, despite the borough having a target of 40%.
“These NHS sites are community assets – they should be used to deliver community benefits,” said Joe Beswick, housing lead at NEF. “Public land, which is owned by all of us, is being flogged off to developers so they can make massive profits, while producing a tiny amount of affordable housing.”
“This is a government with the wrong priorities on housing,” said John Healey, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing. “Ministers should be maximising the number of new genuinely affordable homes on public land, not treating low-cost housing as an afterthought.”
The government has identified surplus Department of Health sites with capacity for 26,000 homes. Between 2015 and 2017 it was expecting to sell sites for 4,000 homes.
In November, the government announced nurses would have first refusal on affordable housing generated through the sale of surplus NHS land. But the NEF argued that in London even affordable rent, which can be as high as 80% of market rent, is not affordable for nurses.
A government spokesperson said: “Since April 2010 there have been more than 357,000 affordable homes provided in England, but we’re aware that more needs to be done, which is why we’re investing over £9bn in affordable housing.
“For NHS staff in particular, we announced plans in October last year to give first refusal on affordable housing schemes built on NHS land sold for development.”
‘Absolutely no change to physiotherapy services at Seaton’, I am assured, despite removal of some equipment
Residents have contacted me because some equipment has been moved from the gym, part of the radiotherapy area at Seaton Hospital. I have spoken to Theresa Denning, the Locality Manager based at Axminster who is responsible for physiotherapy, and she assures me that ‘there is absolutely no change to physiotherapy services at Seaton’. She tells me that some under-used equipment has been moved to make room for other equipment to be used by the community rehabilitation team to treat patients who are being brought in from home. Seaton Hospital reception also confirmed that they are continuing to book physiotherapy appointments as and when needed.
CCG, RD&E speakers at Honiton community event to begin ‘co-designing and co-producing’ local health services/activities – we need a similar meeting in Seaton too
Devon County Council’s Cabinet agrees to ‘work towards the adoption’ of the Ethical Care Charter
Green MP asks for crucial safeguards with new NHS Accountable Care Organisation contracts
Caroline Lucas Green, Brighton, Pavilion
‘To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether safeguards are in place to ensure that the new model Accountable Care Organisation contract, published by NHS England in August 2017, will not result in fewer NHS services being provided than under the traditional NHS standard contract; and if he will make a statement.’
NHS Chair: “We are more scared than we have ever been. We have the strong likelihood of hospitals being inundated with people suffering flu.”
The chairman of NHS England, Prof Sir Malcolm Grant, speaking at the national children and adult services conference in Bournemouth yesterday, said: “We face winter better prepared than we have ever been, but more scared than we have ever been. We have the strong likelihood of hospitals being inundated with people suffering flu.”
Still the right moment to have closed our community hospital beds?
Seaton Hospital page updated to show how the community raised £4 million for it over the last 3 decades
Go to https://seatonmatters.org/seaton-hospital/
A poll of healthcare leaders found that 92 per cent are concerned about their ability to cope as the colder months arrive – but Devon Conservatives know better!
They brushed aside concerns about beds in last week’s Council meeting. The Times also reports that it is too late for a cash injection to save the NHS from a winter crisis, according to a senior health official.
The new model of care is working, they say, but patients who could have been treated in Seaton Hospital are still bed-blocking in the RD&E
Below is the RD&E’s latest publicity leaflet for the ‘new model of care’ boasting ‘no complaints’ from people who were treated between 28 August and 10 September. On the reverse side it features Doug – is it a coincidence that he is from Seaton? – who has had a knee amputation and is being cared for at home after two weeks on an acute ward. He says, ‘I cannot praise enough the wonderful care and treatment I have received right through from the surgical team to the community healthcare professionals. The skills and attention to detail they have shown is remarkable. It’s been a pleasure having them in my home.’
I am sure that the dedicated professionals working in the new system are doing their best for the patients. But are all the people who would have been transferred to the community hospitals actually getting the treatment at home which they are promised by ‘Your Future Care’? At the same time I received this comment from a Seaton resident: ‘A friend of mine’s husband has been in the RD&E for about 10 days. He could have come home 4 days ago, but there was no home care arranged for him – no one available to do the job, so his wife is paying privately to get help, and he will now be coming home some time on Sunday. He will have been bed blocking for 1 WEEK. It says it all doesn’t it?’
