Fight is on to keep our health services local
THE FIGHT is on to block controversial plans that would see the loss of a key mental health inpatient service to Macclesfield.
Under plans revealed in last week’s Macclesfield Express NHS bosses say patients are facing a stark choice of the loss of a dementia or mental health inpatient service based at Macclesfield Hospital.
Health bosses say that the Millbrook Unit, which houses the services, is no longer fit for purpose and that one of the services will move to Lime Walk House on Victoria Road in Macclesfield while the other will have to move to Chester.
The plans have been met with a furious response with campaigners saying it would be a disaster for patients if either of the services were to close.
More than 4,000 people have signed two petitions to save services.
And Macclesfield MP David Rutley has urged Cheshire East Council’s Health, Adult Social Care and Communities Over- view and Scrutiny Committee to block any move to take the plan to a wider public consultation, until ‘vital questions’ have been fully answered and the proposals have been ‘substantially improved’.
Under the plans just six crisis beds would be made available to patients using whichever of the services is moved to Chester.
At a meeting with Sheena Cumiskey, chief executive of the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP), the local mental health service provider, Mr Rutley said he raised his ‘strong concerns’ and said that the Partnership needs to explain how it feels it can deliver acute adult mental health services with only six crisis beds.
Mr Rutley said: “It is vital we retain high-quality mental health services for adults with acute needs in Macclesfield.
“There are still key questions that need to be answered before CWP should consider moving to a public consultation, and it must more clearly demonstrate how it will sustainably and safely deliver any proposals for future services.
“I will continue to keep close to this vital issue and work with our campaign group East Cheshire Mental Health Forum.”
The proposals will go out to consultation if the scrutiny committee signs them off on December 7.
The Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP), NHS Eastern Cheshire, South Cheshire and Vale Royal Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have released a joint statement, which said: “The proposals have been designed by consultant psychiatrists, GPs and other health and social care professionals to respond to patient need and responding to feedback given by service users and carers.
“The proposals aim to provide better and more community-based services for people with acute mental health needs, which means good quality care closer to home where possible for the 3,000 people who access our community services in the NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG area.
“Service users and carers are right to say that it isn’t acceptable to focus only on services for people when they have already reached a crisis.
“We want to prevent people reaching crisis in the first place. At the moment there aren’t enough community services, including crisis centres and dementia outreach services to support people within their own home.
“The intention is to seek views via a public consultation around the options that would enable us to provide more communitybased services and prevent people from becoming so poorly that they need a hospital stay. We wish to have a wider debate with local people about these issues and the solutions to the challenges we face.”