BIG PICTURE
THE future of Macclesfield’s mental health unit hangs in the balance as the 12-week consultation kicks off. Enough is enough. Can anyone, except the people with members of their families who are in the Millbrook, feel and understand what it must be like to have this hanging over their heads as well as having loved ones in the Millbrook Centre?
I read in the Macclesfield Express on 16th August 2016 quote, MP David Rutley, who is due to discuss the consultation with Sheena Cumiskey, chief executive at CWP, at a meeting today (August 16th 2016), said: “It’s vital we continue to have access to important mental health services for local residents in Macclesfield and I will continue to emphasise this in my meeting with the chief executive.”
Why hasn’t anyone listened to what MP David Rutley has said? Hundreds of us are totally in agreement with him.
Macclesfield Express 16th Aug 2016: ‘Bosses say the consultation is a necessary part of a wider shake-up of mental health services across the borough.’
Wider shake-up...... wider shake up.... have you any idea what these people are going through?
Families lives are in turmoil whilst these bosses are looking at developing a range of options. I wonder how much all the consultations have cost since they started?
How, just how, do you think people of Macclesfield are going to have the time and money to get to the proposed site in Chester, yes, Chester to visit their already distraught family member who is so unwell, that they need to be in a safe place until they get better. The trauma of driving to Chester or getting a train or bus to Chester is ludicrous.
The agony of having a loved one with any mental problem is quite enough, never mind adding this awful stress to their lives as well.
We MUST do something to help the people who need our support. Rhona Marshall MBE Tytherington
TIME FOR NHS TO GO IT ALONE
AT last we seem to be making some progress in persuading the NHS to leave well alone, specifically to go on using Millbrook for inpatient treatment of those patients who have a mental health illness.
Two points have emerged:
Apparently CWP own land in Macclesfield. How odd! Why have they got it and how did it come into their hands?
This might be the right moment for our chair of East Cheshire NHS Trust and her board to show some interest in this matter...would they be prepared, able and willing to take back mental health services which they off-loaded to CWP years ago...without consultation at the time I believe? If “yes” perhaps they would now join us instead of just watching from the sidelines. It’s high time we heard from them and I mean the board not the chief executive who always speaks for them.
This is strategic and needs a lead from the very top and that means the leader of the board not an employee however senior he maybe.
If they will show support I believe we will be past the halfway point towards recovering services which should never have been separated from local management.
This situation was a logical end to anyone with experience of the NHS.. once services are divided between Trusts in due course someone in the strongest Trust decides to centralise and get everything in his patch.. usually he then gets a pay rise as he has a larger responsibility!
We are at the end game stage and need to go back to where we were..a major regional force in Mental Health provision before Parkside was closed but bear in mind that housed patients from all over Merseyside and the purpose of Care in the Community was to get those who could be relocated to their part of the county back to their roots.
What is proposed at present is a reversal to this; a centralisation of patients from a wide area to one place not in the patients’ interests and certainly not helpful for relatives, often aged, wanting to visit their loved ones. Peter Hayes Former chairman of East Chesire NHS Trust
WELL DONE TO TEDX TEAM
May I congratulate the TEDx@Macclesfield team for organising a successful TEDx conference last week.
May I also take the opportunity to correct your report that the conference was ‘the town’s inaugural TEDx event’.
The Fallibroome Academy and Trust has organised nine TEDxyouth conferences since 2009 and will deliver a 10th anniversary conference in November.
The archive of inspirational talks and performances are available on the TEDx you tube website on http:// tedxyouthmanchester. com. Our talks have been viewed thousands of times.
Two of our talks having been selected for broadcast on the TED. com website and attracted millions of viewings.
We look forward to collaborating with the TEDxMacclesfield team to deliver the TED mission of ‘ideas worth sharing’, for the benefit of the wider Macclesfield community. P W Rubery Executive Principal/ CEO Fallibroome Academy Conservative councillor for Central Ward RESIDENTS of Macclesfield and Cheshire East are to be betrayed. Promises, commitments made in 1997, after the closure of Parkside Hospital, to retain and maintain in/ out patient Mental Health Care, in Macclesfield, is about to be reneged upon. The Millbrook Unit was built with the intention of providing comprehensive Mental Health Care for the most vulnerable in our communities. We cannot stand by and let the CWP and ECCCG close the Millbrook Unit.
Their argument is that it does not meet regulatory standards. The recent consultation I attended was an insult to people’s intelligence. How are people expected to make constructive comments, when the CWP provided inadequate data, no business case, financial information, travel implications or supporting evidence of best practice.
At a time when those needing Mental Health support is growing, more resources are needed. Not less. To expect people to make lengthy journeys by car, longer if using public transport, the cost implications, will add unnecessary stresses and have the potential to impact outcomes. CWP advocate relatives/friends do not transport people in crisis. What impact will this have on our emergency services?
The travel impact on inpatients could leave them isolated from family/ friends and the work of the Health Coordinator made more difficult, especially around planned discharge. The Government and the CQC recognise the travel implications. Their ambition is to end out of area placements in acute inpatient services. How does this proposal for closing the Millbrook help realise this ambition. What will the Trust do with the unit after closure?
The proposed decision to close the Millbrook Unit is an absolute travesty.
We must not let this happen.
If this is allowed to progress, what services will be next.
Maternity, Paediatrics?