A CONSULTATION about community health services in the Craven area, including the future of Castleberg Hospital, has been launched.

The three month consultation launched by the governing body of the Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) covers two possible options - closure of the hospital with more care at home or repairing and restoring the existing building to bring it back into use.

Health chiefs have rejected any possibility of a possible brand new facility on cost grounds.

In April, one of the hospital's services – a 10-bed ward at Castleberg Hospital – was temporarily withdrawn on safety grounds following ongoing issues with the power supply, heating and drainage.

The almost 200 year-old building was temporarily closed fearing for the safety of patients and staff.

In September, Katrina Dare of NHS Property Services told a meeting of Craven Area Committee: “The building is old and underwent routine maintenance, engineers were regularly in attendance.

“Nurses were going round with miners' lamps on their heads to see in the dark and there were sewage leaks.

“Nobody wants things going on like that with patients present and they were told they had to be evacuated. The scale of the problem had come to a head.”

Since then additional community services (including inpatient beds in local care homes) have been provided to ensure that everyone’s health and care needs have been met. These include services at the main acute hospital sites in Steeton and Lancaster.

To extend their role as part of the community team, Castleberg’s nursing team has provided additional support to patients in their own homes.

The CCG engaged with local people in August and September to find out what matters to them, what they need from services and the best ways of consulting them.

The feedback from this engagement helped the CCG to plan a consultation, and informed the two options on which the consultation is based.

These are: Option 1: Continue to provide inpatient care in the community and repair/restore Castleberg Hospital.

Option 2: Provide an enhanced range of care in people’s home or in an alternative community setting (determined by need), and close Castleberg Hospital.

A third option – to build a new facility – was discounted on the grounds of cost and, subject to agreement by the governing body, will not form part of the consultation.

The CCG has already agreed that options one and two are viable in terms of quality of care and financial sustainability.

A series of drop in sessions run as part of the consultation will take place across Craven in the coming months.

The first session will be held from 10am to noon on Monday, December 11, in Bentham Town Hall with the second taking place from 2pm to 4pm on Friday, January 12, in the Devonshire Institute, Grassington.

Victoria Hall in Settle will host three sessions. They will be held from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday, January 11, 8.30am to 11.30am on Friday, January 19, and from 2pm to 4pm on Monday, January 29.

The final two sessions include one at Skipton Town Hall which takes place from 10am to noon on Tuesday, February 6, and one at Gargrave Village Hall, which will be held from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday, February 22.

The consultation will run until February 27, 2018. It is anticipated that a final decision on the future of the services will be made in May 2018.

For more information about the consultation, visit airedalewharfedalecravenccg.nhs.uk/community-care-services-for-people-living-in-craven-including-the-future-of-castleberg-hospital-2/