The most expensive tick box

Sir, According to the latest Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership annual performance report 2017/18, the rate of emergency admissions per 100,000 population for adults is increasing (red traffic light score page 10) and the cumulative performance for unplanned admissions and delayed discharges are also both scoring red in the same document (page 48) despite current community care initiatives. Light bulb moment, let’s close four more beds at Campbeltown Hospital, disregarding the previous bed modelling this community has suffered in the name of community care, virtual wards and anticipatory health care. Ignore protracted and expensive ‘consultation’ which has tied professionals and volunteers up for many, many hours over the years and implement what has already been decided. In parallel, let’s run another ‘consultation’ exercise and expect the public to read the propaganda and interpret one tome at 69 pages with reference to another at 93, plus various other documents and videos. Oh dear, someone has taken an inordinate amount of personal time to look at these, must be an anorak who likes finding needles in haystacks. If the modern organisational trend is to be dictatorial then I suggest all the clinicians’ valuable input could be much better utilised dealing with the patients rather than being instructed to join this futile charade of endless, expensive, ‘consultation’ meetings. Who knows, these savings may fund the four beds, crucial for acute care, when all these changes continue to be inflicted regardless. Andrew Hemmings, Sound of Kintyre, Machrihanish.