Kettering General Hospital patients to use re-opened Rushden Spinneyfields specialist rehab centre
A specialist rehab centre, that closed following a funding row between Northamptonshire’s two unitary councils, has now re-opened to Kettering General Hospital (KGH) patients.
Spinneyfield Specialist Care Centre in Rushden, still owned by West Northants Council but in the neighbouring authority’s area, will be used by University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN).
‘Step-down’ patients from UHN – that runs Kettering and Northampton general hospitals – will be given care and therapy support designed to deliver rehabilitation care outside of hospital.
The Spinneyfield Specialist Care Centre in HE Bates Way re-opened on Monday (August 19) to provide care supported by a multi-disciplinary team including doctors, nurses and therapists.
Jane Daniel, KGH’s head of nursing for medicine, said: “The unit is designed to care for patients who may need extra rehabilitation and support before they can return to their home in the community.
“Care will be provided in a homely environment offering 31 single rooms with en-suite facilities. There is a communal lounge and dining area designed to allow patients the option to socialise with others. Spinneyfields will provide a good step-down environment and we are pleased to be able to open and run it for the benefit of our patients and their families.”
The unit’s dedicated therapy team will support the promotion of mobility, functional skills and confidence in preparation for patients waiting for packages of care, rehabilitation beds or long-term care facility beds. It will offer open visiting to friends and relatives with free parking on-site.
The facility will enable Kettering General Hospital to transfer patients to a more ‘appropriate care setting’, which has the added benefit of freeing up bed space at the hospital site.
KGH’s chief operating officer Fay Gordon said: “There is a lot of pressure on hospital beds and having extra beds available in the community for those patients who no longer need hospital-based care will help us to create bed capacity on the main hospital site for those patients who need more acute care.
“This will assist in more timely admissions into hospital beds from the emergency department and overall improve the flow of patients through the hospital and back into the community.”
The centre, which first opened in 2004, was closed by West Northants Council (WNC) in January 2023. WNC had inherited Spinneyfields from the bankrupt Northamptonshire County Council (NCC), along with three other specialist short-term care centres. The centres had been transferred to NCC in 2020 from Shaw Healthcare – part of a PFI contract.
Its location in the north of the county was cited as one of the reasons why West Northants residents were not being referred to the unit with patient numbers dwindling to only 12 of its 52 beds being filled.
At the time of the closure, WNC said Spinneyfields was ‘not good value of money’ as it was not being ‘well used’. North Northamptonshire Council had been urged to step-in to save the facility but it said it did not need the rehabilitation spaces.
Currently 20 bedrooms remain unused at the bespoke facility, allowing further expansion of the service if necessary.