Concern finances being placed above patient need at village hospital

HIGH SECURITY PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY HAS MADE 'SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS'

- BY JOE LOCKER Local Democracy Reporter

A NOTTINGHAM councillor has questioned whether a crisis-hit NHS trust has been placing finances above the needs of patients at a secure hospital that it runs.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust runs Rampton Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital in the village of Woodbeck.

In January 2024 the hospital was rated "inadequate" by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC), while the wider trust has been the subject of a review initiated by the health secretary following the Nottingham attacks in June 2023.

While the hospital's rating has since improved to "requires improvement" as of May following a raft of changes, some concerns remain.

These were discussed at a Nottingham City Council health scrutiny meeting on Thursday, November 20.

Cllr Georgia Power (Lab), the chair of the committee, said: "It talks [in documents] about the key areas patients, families, and carers have raised - one of them being bed capacity and access to services.