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Housing association workers help free up hospital beds for coronavirus patients
Housing association repair workers have restored a mothballed NHS care facility to free up hospital beds for coronavirus patients.
WHG, which owns around 21,000 homes across the West Midlands, helped with the fit-out of Holly Bank House in Willenhall for free after being contacted by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
The facility was being used as NHS offices and excess storage space after being deemed surplus to requirements some time ago, with beds dismantled and scattered throughout the building.
Rob Gilham, corporate director of business strategy and assets at WHG, told Inside Housing: “We have about 330 colleagues in our in-house repairs team with an enormous range of skills.
“In recent weeks we’ve gone from a full repairing service to only dealing with emergencies, in line with the government’s coronavirus advice, so we said to our partners that we would have capacity and that we wanted to put it to useful help.
“So we were approached to by the NHS Trust. Initially they just wanted the place clearing, but there were also repairs that needed doing and we were able to sort out skips and materials and put together equipment to make the facility operational again.”
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The 17-bedroom facility, which was originally used for stroke victims, will now take patients from Walsall Manor Hospital to free up beds there for people suffering from COVID-19.
There were 340 confirmed cases in Walsall at 9am on 5 April.
Thirteen WHG staff worked on turning Holly Bank House back into a working hospital last week.
The association has also used other staff unable to do their normal jobs because of the pandemic to make around 4,000 calls to all of its tenants over 70, offering support and help deliver council food parcels.
It is currently paying all staff full salaries and does not currently have any plans to put employees on furlough, Mr Gilham said.
Daren Fradgley, director of integration at Walsall Healthcare NHS 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 while the trust is dealing with the COVID-19 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.”
