HEALTH chiefs have confirmed that a specialist rehabilitation unit is to move from the rural New Forest into the city of Southampton.
Hundreds of former patients who had benefited from the care they received at Snowdon House battled to save it from closure after the controversial proposal was announced earlier this year. The death knell has finally fallen on the 15-bed unit based at Ashurst Hospital used by patients recovering from strokes or those with neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
Health bosses have decided to move the rehabilitation services provided at Snowdon House to the Riverside Ward at the Western Community Hospital in Southampton.
The existing staff and general rehabilitation beds on the Riverside Ward are to be combined with those in the community wards at Southampton's Royal South Hants Hospital.
Bosses at Southampton City Primary Care Trust, responsible for the rehabilitation service, said merging Snowdon House's rehabilitation services with Western Hospital's stroke unit would mean better facilities and nursing cover.
The trust insists that no staff will lose their jobs in the move.
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