MSP to lodge complaint on consultation

AN MSP is to lodge an official complaint about NHS Tayside’s handling of a consultation on the potential closure of an Angus mental health unit.

Mairi Gougeon, MSP for Angus North and Mearns, believes the three-month consultation on mental health and learning disability services, which ended this week, was “confusing, complex and closed” to constituents.

She will raise her concerns with the Scottish Health Council.

Mrs Gougeon says NHS Tayside has “engineered the process” to promote its preferred option to close the Mulberry Unit and transfer it to the Carseview Centre in Dundee.

“The vast majority of constituents who have contacted me have expressed serious concerns about the way NHS Tayside has conducted its consultation,” she said.

“I relayed some of those fears in a letter to NHS Tayside’s chief executive Lesley McClay during the process but I do not feel that my specific complaints were at all addressed.”

Perth and Kinross Integration Joint Board approved the three-month consultation and Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership’s chief officer Robert Packham responded to the complaint.

He said: “The programme team worked closely with the Scottish Health Council throughout the process to ensure that all engagement around this programme met national guidance and followed best practice.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Health Council said: “Integration joint boards have a duty to ensure that communities are engaged in the planning of local services and that people’s views and needs are taken into account when decisions are made.”

Ray pictured on his many adventures.