28th April 2022

Butterley Ward is back at Ripley Hospital 

Butterley Ward has now moved back to Ripley Hospital from its temporary base at Ilkeston Community Hospital.

The ward was temporarily relocated last autumn as part of measures agreed by the local NHS system, Joined Up Care Derbyshire (JUCD), to help manage extreme pressures on NHS services and health service staffing across Derbyshire in the winter months.

Now Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Ripley Hospital, has confirmed that the ward returned to Ripley Hospital on Thursday 28 April.

It honours a commitment made at the time of the temporary relocation to bring the ward back on site when pressures on healthcare and on NHS staffing allowed. JUCD has approved the move as part of the wider healthcare system plan going into the spring and summer.

In March this year health bosses at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust said the ward would be moving back in the final week of April, and this has now taken place.

William Jones, chief operating officer and deputy chief executive for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I know that many people within the local community will be overjoyed to have the ward back at Ripley. The Butterley Ward team does an amazing job of looking after the patients in its care, and their families. We’re very grateful for the dedication and flexibility they have shown over the past six months at Ilkeston and delighted that we can bring them back to Ripley to continue that same high standard of care in their permanent base.”          

Butterley Ward offers high quality multidisciplinary rehabilitation care and is consistently rated as gold standard under Derbyshire Community Health Service’s Quality Always clinical accreditation scheme.


Date announced for Butterley Ward to move back to Ripley Hospital

11 March 2022

Plans have been announced to bring Butterley Ward back to Ripley Hospital from its temporary base at Ilkeston Community Hospital after Easter, during the final week of April.

The ward was temporarily relocated last autumn as part of measures agreed by the local NHS system, Joined Up Care Derbyshire (JUCD), to help manage extreme pressures on NHS services and staffing across Derbyshire during the winter.

Now Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Ripley Hospital, has confirmed that the ward will move back to Ripley at the end of April, which honours a commitment made at the time of the temporary relocation to bring the ward back on site when pressures on healthcare and on NHS staffing allowed. JUCD has approved the move as part of the wider healthcare system plan going into the spring and summer.

William Jones, chief operating officer and deputy chief executive for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I know that many people within the local community will be overjoyed to have the ward back at Ripley and it gives me great pleasure to be able to confirm the move back will take place next month. The Butterley Ward team does an amazing job of looking after the patients in its care, and their families. We’re very grateful for the dedication and flexibility they have shown over the past six months at Ilkeston and delighted that we can bring them back to Ripley to continue that same high standard of care in their permanent base.”          

Nigel Mills MP, Member of Parliament for Amber Valley, said “I am pleased at the news that the Butterley Ward is returning to Ripley Hospital next month. Ripley Hospital is a great asset to the local area, and I know that many residents will be pleased that this vital service will be back in the town. I have been urging JUCD to make best use of facilities like Ripley Hospital to ensure that healthcare can be delivered as locally as possible.”

Butterley Ward is a 14-bedded facility offering high quality multidisciplinary rehabilitation care and is consistently rated as gold standard under Derbyshire Community Health Service’s Quality Always clinical accreditation scheme.

Before the return of the ward to Ripley the opportunity is being taken to undertake some refurbishment work, including to the kitchen. William added: “This will minimise any disruption to patients and the ward team, while also enabling us to improve the ward environment.”

Phyllis Holmes, chair of Ripley Hospital League of Friends, said: “We are pleased to have confirmation of the ward return in April, which is exactly as promised when it was temporarily relocated. The League of Friends is grateful for all the support from the local community towards Ripley Hospital; we couldn’t do what we do without it.”

The temporary relocation of Butterley Ward to Ilkeston was agreed last September by health leaders at JUCD, including Derbyshire Community Health Services which operates both sites.  They sought to build in as much resilience as possible to the way health services were configured/organised in anticipation of the hardest winter on record for hospital admissions and as the Omicron variant loomed large, adding to the staffing pressures due to sickness absence.

Butterley Ward’s layout at Ripley Hospital includes side room accommodation which is suited to giving greater privacy to clinically stable rehabilitation patients in normal times. The bay layout of the wards at Ilkeston made it easier for a wider range of admissions, and easier supervision of patients, when the pressure on health services was so unrelenting in the winter months. Being able to bring two wards side-by-side at Ilkeston helped with being able to ensure safe staffing levels and to care for a wider range of patients. At the time of the decision, only 2% of patients being discharged from local acute hospitals to community hospital wards were suitable to go in a side room such as those on Butterley Ward.                                                        

In more recent weeks, the Ripley-based Butterley Ward environment has been put to good use to support discharges from acute hospitals.

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust cares for patients across a wide range of services in Derbyshire and Derby, delivered from multiple sites including 11 community hospitals and more than 30 health centres across Derbyshire, with nearly 1.5 million patient contacts each year. More details about the trust can be found online: http://www.dchs.nhs.uk/home/our-services