Since establishing the Fareham Community Hospital (FCH) Taskforce in 2016, Suella has continuously striven to improve the usage of the hospital. During Suella’s recent FCH Taskforce meeting, she was thrilled to learn that FCH has drastically improved its usage.
Friday’s meeting marked an important milestone for Taskforce. Through monitoring the level of footfall at the surgery, it was confirmed that overall usage of FCH has increased substantially over the last year. This was extremely positive news for Suella and the Taskforce, given their resolute ambition for providing better and more accessible first-class healthcare for local residents.
In the last year, FCH has seen increased utilisation, as measured by footfall, across the board. For example, the x-ray department increased its usage by 18% in the past year, now delivering an average usage between 60% to 70%. The chemotherapy unit, diagnostics department, Renal Service and Covid vaccinations unit also saw an increase in usage. Suella was notably pleased to learn of the overall progress in FCH’s total usage. Last year, footfall across the hospital averaged at 37.6%. A year later, it has been confirmed that the overall average footfall has risen to 50.9%.
Whilst this was a celebratory achievement for the Taskforce, further success is expected to come. Sarah Tiller, Managing Director of SE Hampshire CCG, confirmed that FCH is forecast to increase its usage in the near future and beyond – further highlighting the achievement of the Taskforce’s plan to provide more local healthcare to Fareham residents.
Suella was particularly proud to learn about the new chemotherapy unit’s positive usage. Since opening in May 2022, the chemotherapy unit has sustained an average usage of 79.4%. After understanding that Fareham residents were previously forced to travel all the way to St Mary’s Community Health Campus or Queen Alexandra Hospital to receive chemotherapy, Suella’s Taskforce went to great lengths to facilitate the opening of this unit. Having officially opened the chemo unit earlier in the year, Suella was delighted to see that the new unit was being used at an impressive rate.
These highly positive usage figures marked concrete progress in the Taskforce’s plan to champion the use of this valuable community asset. In addition to the Taskforce’s work, Suella thanked the Community Health Partnership team and Portsmouth Hospital University NHS Trust for all their work in achieving these positive results.
Commenting, Suella Said:
“Increasing the use of Fareham Community Hospital has been a goal of mine for many years. I’m absolutely thrilled to see that the usage of Fareham Community Hospital has increased from 37.6 per cent to 50.9 per cent over the last year – I am proud of this excellent news. My thanks to Portsmouth Hospital, the Community Health Partnership team, Fareham Community Hospital and the Taskforce for this achievement.
For far too long, Fareham Community Hospital’s facilities have been underused and neglected. I’ve campaigned for a long time to change this. It’s fantastic to know that more of my constituents are now accessing better and more convenient local healthcare.
I am particularly pleased to see the brand-new chemotherapy unit bedding in well. The Taskforce and I recognised the need for a new chemo unit and worked hard to support the delivery of this. Knowing that it is now being used almost 80 per cent of the time, gives me real confidence in the Taskforce’s abilities to deliver real change by improving the accessibility of local healthcare for my constituents. It’s great to know that the chemo unit is making a real difference to so many more cancer patients in Fareham.
Following these successful achievements, the Taskforce and I will be continuing to prioritise the use and improvement of Fareham Community Hospital’s facilities for a long time to come.”
