Bosses at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital have moved swiftly to put new arrangements in place at the Hamar Centre following the resignation of two counsellors.
Officials at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust plan to replace the two counsellors by appointing a full time registered therapist/counsellor.
Temporary arrangements have also been made to ensure Wednesday therapy groups at the centre continue and there are also plans to expand the complementary therapy team.
Hospital officials claim it will help to extend the services currently on offer at the centre, and have said visits to the wards will continue as part of the services that therapists provide at the Hamar Centre. This comes despite claims made by senior counsellor Arvind Patel that ward visits were being axed.
Last week the Chronicle reported on the resignations of Mr Patel and Lin Brown, who had both been counsellors at the centre for many years. Ms Brown remains the subject of an internal disciplinary investigation by hospital chiefs.
In a letter to a concerned patient, Tom Taylor, trust chief executive, said: “Whilst I understand the recent resignation of counsellors may be unsettling for patients at the Hamar Centre, I can assure you that the trust is committed to ensuring that we continue to provide high quality services for all clients at the Hamar Centre.
“In fact we are looking to replace the two days currently provided by the two counsellors by a full-time registered therapist/counsellor so we can extend the services currently provided and offer them to a wider range of clients.”
Julia Clarke, director of corporate affairs at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “The trust is committed to providing the highest standard of care for our patients and service users, and although this is a service which is not normally provided by acute hospitals and for which we do not receive funding, we are committed to developing and expanding it further. We recognise the importance of supporting patients with long-term conditions.”
By Peter Kitchen
