Two hospitals wards will close in St Albans, resulting in the loss of 39 community beds.

Hertfordshire’s Community NHS Trust has today announced that the Sopwell and Langton wards at St Albans City Hospital, which provide 24-hour nursing services, will be shut in order to save it £2.8m.

While the city will lose 39 beds, ten extra spaces will be created in Langley House in St Albans Road, Watford. The trust claims that around 40 per cent of its patients in St Albans actually live in Watford, while only 31 per cent have a local postcode.

There has been a decrease in the trust’s budget as a result of a new contract with Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group - most of the cuts have been made to support for community beds.

David Law, chief executive of the trust, said: “The reduction in our contract means that we are currently using money from budgets for other services to keep Sopwell and Langton wards open, and this cannot continue for much longer.”

It was today revealed that hospital services in nearly two-thirds of England will be cut or scaled back. NHS England claims the proposals, which aim to transform the health service and save money, will mean patients receive better care in the community but this means large-scale cuts and a number of hospital closures.

The community trust will increase its capacity to support people in their own homes. West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust will provide more funding to the ‘discharge to assess’ scheme wherein up to 50 west Hertfordshire residents will be supported for in their own homes following hospital treatment.

The arrangement between the hospital trust and the community trust is designed to avoid delays to patients who are waiting to leave hospital.

The community trust is also recruiting more healthcare assistants to bolster its community nursing and therapy teams. There is a national shortage of qualified nurses and therapists, and healthcare assistants can provide treatments such as the administration of insulin injections in patients’ homes.

Mr Law said: “This is a difficult time for the NHS, the people who need our services and our staff. We know our funding is getting tighter compared to the need for services we are seeing. We have worked very closely with WHHT and with social care to find a way through.

“As our proposed plans are implemented and develop, we will have at least the same capacity to manage people as we had with the beds open at St Albans. I appreciate this will be of concern to many local residents and we will be happy to talk with local groups to explain what we are doing.”

In the coming weeks, the trust will announce ways in which local people can hear more detail about the proposals. People interested in receiving an update by email, should send their name and email address to engagement@hct.nhs.uk.