WILLITON Community Hospital will remain as it is, while wards at three other Somerset community hospitals will stay temporarily closed due to staff shortages, a review has decided.

Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospitals, reviewed the situation at a board meeting on Tuesday.

It follows a public consultation over the closures, including at Dene Barton from where staff supported the re-opening of specialist stroke beds at Williton.

There were 350 responses to the consultation, which formed part of the review, and the board agreed it is not yet in a position to re-open inpatient wards at Chard, Dene Barton and Shepton Mallet Community Hospitals.

It reiterated its commitment to reopen these wards as soon as possible, but did not expect to be able to do this before the end of March, and would review the position monthly.

The review heard that staff recruitment had improved slightly but not sufficiently, and the board noted there were currently vacancy levels of over 38 full time nurses – almost 53 nurses, once maternity leave and sickness were factored in.

“While the [ongoing temporary closure] decision was difficult, it was the right one to make, in the interests of protecting patient safety and supporting the current staff, given the challenging staffing levels,” a spokesman said.

The board thanked members of the public who responded to the public consultation and paid tribute to all staff, who had worked hard with increased patient demand over winter.

It said 222 inpatient hospital beds had been consolidated into ten community hospitals, with temporary closure of wards at the three hospitals.