Dementia ward may close 'to deliver services in community'

A TYNESIDE hospital is consulting on plans which could see a dementia ward closed and with it 24 beds.

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Bosses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead are understood to have told staff about a scheme which would see its ward 23 closed as part of a move to “deliver more services in the community, rather than in a hospital bed”.

This comes as the Gateshead Health NHS Trust, which operates the hospital, faces huge financial pressures. The trust's financial plan for the current financial year includes a requirement for £32.8m in cost-saving measures.