Closure of Knapdale Ward
Sir,
The closure of Knapdale Ward would be a folly of the first degree.
I have seen many specialised services in the NHS closed or moved to a large centre with no benefit to the community and little financial saving, since the NHS moves on much faster due to the changing nature of health and skills.
Moving dementia patients to the Glasgow and Clyde area will be of no benefit to the patients or their relatives and friends at a time of their life when the patients need that contact. If Knapdale ward was a cancer or organ transplant centre, then there would be a howl and loud outcry to keep it open.
As a former technical manager of a service within the NHS, I have heard again and again the cry: ‘It will be better to have all the patients within a specialised unit’ – and for some services this might be a justified argument. But we must ask ourselves, these are elderly people who are near the end of their life and their greatest need is for care and the closeness of family and friends. If we deprive them, and Argyll, of that care service for the elderly, it will be irresponsible.
If it is just for cost and staffing, then we should learn the lessons of this current coronavirus, where we were unprepared and cost savings over the past decade have led to the NHS being short of vital equipment and staff and no workable strategy that will get us through this pandemic without much hardship. Now we have thrown hundreds of billions at this problem and we have had to call on staff who were discarded over the years for help. We should have learned that dementia has more social aspects than other illnesses, most patients need their loved ones nearby.
We ought to do more to find ways to keep Knapdale open for its vital dementia service. We need to change our thinking, as I am sure many a politician will do when the final tally of the current pandemic is made, that we do not just ringfence money for the NHS – we need to spend as much money that provides a decent and world class health service come what may; and supports all the staff that we have stood up to clap for, for their dedication to us all. Derrick Anstee, Inveraray.