Concerns Raised Over East Riding Social Care Readiness Ahead Of Bridlington Care Unit Closure

Councillors have warned that the local social care system may not be equipped to handle additional pressures when the Bridlington Care Unit closes in June.

Plans to close the Bridlington Care Unit this June have sparked fears that the East Riding social care system may not be prepared to handle the resulting pressures.

The unit at Bridlington Hospital, operated by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was opened in 2021 as a temporary measure during the pandemic. It primarily provides capacity for patients leaving Scarborough Hospital who are clinically ready for discharge but are awaiting onward care.

A consultation with staff began in April 2026, with the proposed closure date set for the first of June. Funding for the twenty-eight-bed unit is being withdrawn by the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board from the 2026-27 financial year, with resources being redirected towards community services.

However, local representatives have expressed serious concerns about the speed of the closure and the impact on the local authority.

Councillor Jonathan Owen said:

"I still have concerns about that timeline. Are we in a position to take on our responsibilities as a local authority in the time that they're going to be shutting down this unit?

Because we've got an improvement journey in adult social care. It's not going to solve things in a couple of months. It's going to be one or two years, at least, to get to where we want to be. This change is coming about literally in weeks.

We were put on the back foot by this, and I think a lot of this debate could have been solved if we'd had proper discussions early on and we could say, this ain't going to happen in six months, this might.

And I don't think we're in that position yet on that timeline to know exactly what we can do when. But that's not for any lack of intent to work in closer with the NHS."

The sentiment was echoed by colleagues who are worried about the financial and operational strain on council resources.

Councillor Paul Smith said:

"How do we, we as councillors understand that what you're not going to do is flood us with people that we have to take care of on our overstretched budgets. That's the assurances we need so we can move forward from this.

What I need to understand from you as an NHS body is what you will do to support us as a local authority to ensure that we, if we have to pick up the slack and support our residents so we can get through our CQC assessment, so we can deliver that care in the community without leaving people behind."

Health bosses argue that the closure is necessary to prevent patients from remaining in hospital beds longer than needed. The unit currently discharges an average of 2.4 patients per day, with many coming from the local Bridlington area, as well as Scarborough and Whitby.

Dr Simon Cox, Place Director at the NHS Integrated Care Board, highlighted the lengthy stays patients are currently experiencing at the facility.

"looking at what we're seeing, which is the average length of stay, which colleagues are reporting is 27 days. So it's effectively a month. People who may have been in Scarborough Hospital or York Hospital for 2, 3, 4, 5 days, and should be then going home, hopefully, able to then return to a normal life and then having a month's extra stay somewhere, which is to some degree a sticking plaster for inadequacies in other parts of the system."

Medical professionals have also pointed out the physical toll that extended hospital stays can take on older patients.

Dr Ed Smith, Care Group Director at York and Scarborough NHS Trust, said:

"One of the many reasons for advocating this change is because we genuinely believe that the de-conditioning that occurs on the patient journey from acute admission into the wards and then into services like Bridlington care unit could be better managed by managing the patient back into the community earlier on in their journey.

Now, I'll take the point around how do we know that the services are up and running and ready to go to take that, but it is a little bit chicken and egg. We need to reinvest in the services we invested in historically to take that patient journey forward and make a step change in managing patients in the community.

From our perspective, the patient harm that is occurring on that journey is daily and it's really something we don't want, really want to continue to support."

Acknowledging the friction between local government and health services, Dr Cox emphasised the need for collaboration.

Dr Simon Cox said:

"There there is often and probably always will be a degree of tension between the NHS and local authorities in terms of who funds what, particularly for certain types of very complex patients. However, the fundamental point is that we're both public sector bodies and that we do work together and generally work together pretty well. There are tensions and probably always should be, but we need to really embrace that and I think that is the future direction is working together for that single public sector approach in terms of supporting people in the community, getting people, if they're in hospital, home as soon as they can do, or if they're not, if they're fragile and vulnerable at home, to support them, so in some cases they don't need to go into admission in the first place. So that is the big opportunity.

There will, let's be honest, there will all often be tensions between different budgets, but ultimately, if we look at this as one public sector and we work together, we've got a joint committee that we work together on and we need to really embrace that and the Council needs to get behind the NHS and the ICB needs to get behind that in terms of us working together to support people in the community."

The NHS has stated that thirty-one staff members will be affected by the closure, though no redundancies are anticipated as they will be redeployed to existing vacancies.

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