New ward opens to help patients return home more quickly

The opening of Ward 35, a therapy-led ward/discharge lounge, will also help to ease pressure on the hospital’s busy emergency department by creating an additional 25 beds. Additional bed space will also be created at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford in the coming weeks.

Ward 35, which is based in the Copthorne Building at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH), began taking in its first patients on Monday.

Sarah Evans, Ward Manager, said: “We are delighted to have Ward 35 open. The purpose of the ward and the role of the Therapy and Nursing teams which are based here, is to provide a short period of rehabilitation to patients before their discharge home from hospital. 

“The teams on the ward aim to reduce length of stay in the acute hospital setting, but also to ease demand on community services.”

Nigel Lee, Chief Operating Officer at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and PRH, said: “The opening of Ward 35 is excellent news for our patients. By being able to provide a therapy-led ward, we will be able to reduce the length of stay for those patients who no longer need the specialist care that acute hospitals provide.

“It will also free up more bed space to help reduce pressure on our very busy Emergency Department. We know that, in the long-term, we need to implement our strategic solution to the way we deliver acute care, but we must also do all we can to tackle the issues we have in the here and now, and Ward 35 will help us do that.”