EFFORTS to re-open Moretonhampstead Community Hospital to inpatients have 'made significant strides' in recent months.

The Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust decided to close the hospital's nine inpatient beds at the end of January 2013 due to safety concerns. The temporary closure was for an initial period of three months, pending a review.

The trust has now released a status report to its commissioners regarding the closure of inpatient services.

Roger French, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust chairman, said: 'We have made significant strides over the past three months in working towards reopening the inpatient beds and the board would like to thank the team for their hard work to address the safety and quality issues.

'Special praise must go to the community hospital teams in Moretonhampstead and Okehampton for embracing their changing work patterns so flexibly and to the community nursing teams who have continued to work hard to support patients in their own homes.

'We have recently launched another round of recruitment and are hopeful this will be successful. However, I regret to confirm we will be unable to reopen the beds at Moretonhampstead Community Hospital until we have sufficient clinical staff in post.

'The beds will remain open at Okehampton Community Hospital until the trust and our commissioners are jointly assured that all issues have been resolved and we can return to providing a safe, high-quality inpatient service.'

John Finn, managing director of the eastern locality of Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said: 'We are satisfied that the trust is working as fast as it can to resolve the staffing and quality issues that were raised in January.'

Dr Alex Degan, vice chair of the Mid Devon sub-locality of the CCG, said: 'As commissioners we require assurance that our patients receive high-quality care and until we can be certain that these standards are being met in Moretonhampstead, we understand the trust's conclusion that the inpatient beds should remain open at Okehampton.'

The decision to close inpatient services centred on concerns over the opportunity for Moretonhampstead staff to maintain core clinical skills when they deal with so few patients. These concerns were shared by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection last year.

In the status report, the trust confirms it has competed a number of key actions to address the safety and quality issues.

An on-site safety review has been carried out by senior trust members, a new Band 7 team leader for the Moretonhampstead and Okehampton cluster has been recruited, and a development programme has been launched to assess and support the training and skills of staff.

All staff in the Moretonhampstead and Okehampton cluster have agreed to work in shifts which rotate between both hospitals, giving them greater exposure of working with a larger number of patients.

Other key actions are in progress but have yet to be completed, including the recruitment of sufficient registered nurses.

The trust has advertised for nurses and healthcare assistants but has struggled to recruit enough staff.

To mitigate the impact of the temporary closure at Moretonhampstead, the inpatient beds were transferred to Okehampton Community Hospital while additional community health, social care and therapy staff were provided to support patients in the local area.