Patients' wait over future of Orchard View hospital

Patients at a respite centre are still waiting to find out where they will go when it closes at the end of the month, it has been claimed.

Staff at Orchard View in Pill claim that despite promises by NHS officials that all of the 80 people that use the centre will be offered alternative respite care before it closes, there are still around 30 people who have yet to find places.

Some of the patients, many of whom have mobility problems and are confined to wheelchairs, are understood to have been offered respite care places more than a hundred miles away at locations including Epping Forest and Southampton. Senior health care assistant Bill Sharp, 69, who has worked at Orchard View for six years, said: "It is a complete and utter shambles.

"We care for around 80 people and I have spoken to at least 30 who say that no alternative respite care has been arranged for them. The centre is due to close at the end of September and yet a lot of the patients have no idea where they will be going next. This is causing our users distress."

NHS North Somerset chief executive Chris Born said: "We are not going to close Orchard View until everyone has their care places sorted out. We expect, that by the end of the month, everyone will have their respite care places agreed.

"There are a number of people we are still waiting to hear back from about their respite care preferences. We are being proactive and contacting them to resolve the issue."