The Oakwood unit is a rehabiliation ward of 24 beds on the same site as, but separate from the Prospect Park Hospital for patients with mental disorders. It is effectively Reading's Community hospital. According to the Reading Chronicle of 12th October the ward is to be closed and replaced by a 15-bed unit at Thatcham hospital, with provision for 6 further beds at Wokingham Community Hospital when demand is very high. The operator ot the Oakwood Unit is Berkshire Healthcare NHS Advanced Foundation Trust, which may well have pressing other uses for the site.
For many people Thatcham will be less convenient and may hinder visitors as well as inconvenience continung treatment by Royal Berkshire Hospital or Reading community services.
Many people will have known someone who recuperated in the Oakwood Unit after a major op or will have been there themselves.
Over past years we have lost a lot of rehabilitation beds, at Battle hospital and at Dellwood on Liebenrood Road in Reading.
It may be that the current operator does need the site for expansion of the mental health hospital.
But in any case the decision should take account of the fact that the Royal Berkshire Hospital will be moving in the late 2030s.
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