A MEDICAL ward at Great Western Hospital that caters for people with diabetes-related conditions is set to close.

Next month Teal Ward, which has 18 beds, will be emptied so it can be used to cope with extra demand at peak times and to enable other wards to be refurbished.

The trust has reassured staff that the move, which comes as part of the GWH’s five-year refurbishment programme, will not result in any redundancies and all 40 full and part-time staff will be relocated at the hospital.

Diabetes patients on Teal Ward will be moved to Mercury Ward and will continue to be cared for by a team of specialist staff.

It comes after recent reports showed the primary care trust was not offering a good enough level of care to diabetes patients.

Dr Elizabeth Price, associate medical director, unscheduled and community care said: “With people living longer and having more complex medical needs, the types of patients we see in hospital are different to those we saw just a few years ago.

“Over the past 12 months we’ve made a number of changes in the hospital so that we have the right number of beds, with the right staff, for the types of patients we now see in hospital.

“This work has involved some significant improvements to the way we care for patients.

“For example, the changes we made to ambulatory care last year have meant that patients who do not need to be admitted are treated and discharged, getting them back to where they came from much more quickly.

“We have increased the number of beds on the Linnet Acute Medical Unit, which has helped speed up the care we provide to these patients, and have been able to refurbish two wards.

“As part of this work, next month we plan to move 18 beds from Teal Ward to another ward where patients with diabetes will continue to be cared for by a team of specialist staff. This change will lead to better care for people with diabetes.”

Staff members affected by the changes have been consulted on the proposals this week.

Dr Price said: “They will either move with the beds to the new ward or will be redeployed to other vacancies in the trust.

“By freeing up this space on Teal we will be able to use this area as and when demand is particularly high.”

But an anonymous member of staff contacted the Adver this week with their concerns.

They said: “Workers have been advised there will be no redundancies but redeployment. As there are very few vacancies this is worrying for the staff. It is thought the closure is down to funding. Maybe the trust isn’t so successful after all.”