Northamptonshire NHS trust abandons staff redundancy plans
The NHS trust overseeing dementia care in Northamptonshire has launched a revised plan to restructure services.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust proposed redundancies and downgrading of staff earlier this year.
New proposals for staff consultation will see instead four new teams set up across the county and services merging.
Its first set of plans attracted a lot of criticism from local people, politicians and unions.
The trust has now said the number of older people with mental health problems was increasing and staff numbers would rise marginally to cope.
Period of reflection
Under new plans the memory assessment and long term care teams would merge, Richard McKendrick, of the trust, said.
Dementia care advisors would work for the charity Northamptonshire Carers, following a relocation of funding.
Services would not be lost or reduced and the headcount of staff would increase marginally, under the plan.
"A big implication of the first document was the loss of frontline services. There is no proposal like this now but we need to be efficient in providing services for more people," Mr McKendrick said.
"Over the next 15 years we will see a 75% increase in the number of people wanting the services and we need to be prepared for that.
"The staff consultation will continue till the end of September after which there will be a period of reflection and a new plan will be implemented by December," he said.