whg Colleagues Help Bring Care Facility Back into Use

• 6th April 2020

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Volunteers from whg have helped get a former care facility in Willenhall back up and running as part of plans to increase the number of hospital beds in the borough.

whg stepped in to help Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust turn Holly Bank House in Willenhall back into a care facility.

A team of 13 colleagues leapt into action, transforming the former stroke unit into a 17-bed discharge unit, enabling more patients to be released from hospital and freeing up beds at Walsall Manor Hospital.

Work included making up the rooms and assembling equipment, fixing a roof leak, fitting showers, replacing lighting and removing rubbish.

Corporate Director of Business Strategy and Assets Rob Gilham said: “We have excellent links with our local health partners and were more than happy to lend a hand and share our resources to increase bed capacity across Walsall.

“Our Asset Management Team did a fantastic job in getting the facility ready in just two days.

“As a local organisation working in the heart of the community we are keen to do all we can assist during the current crisis, in particular by standing shoulder to shoulder with the NHS who are doing amazing work during this challenging time.”

Daren Fradgley, Director of Integration for Walsall Healthcare Trust, said: “The Trust has been working really hard with our Walsall Together partners in Walsall Council and whg to get Holly Bank House up and running as an inpatient facility for patients requiring stroke rehabilitation of complex discharged out of the hospital whilst the Trust is dealing with the Covid pandemic.

“This is crucial to free up beds for the inevitable influx of patients the hospital will have over the coming months due to coronavirus but also to get patients, where possible, back into the community where they are less at risk.

“I am pleased to say that thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, including the volunteers who have been instrumental in getting all the final bits of work done, that patients will begin to be transferred on Monday. A big thank you and well done to everyone involved.”