Nurse shortage sees plan scrapped
Community hopes are fading for Aberfeldy facility
Plans to turn part of an Aberfeldy care home into a four-bed health nursing wing have been scrapped.
It had been hoped an area of Dalween Care Home would be used to part replace the Edwardian-era cottage hospital which closed in 2016.
But Perth and Kinross health and social care partnership said yesterday that a difficulty in attracting nurses had scuppered the proposal.
The bombshell news came less than 24 hours after concerns about the project were rasied at an Aberfeldy Community Council meeting.
A spokesperson for the social care partnership told the PA: “Significant work has been completed to develop the health nursing wing within Dalweem Care Home. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to open the facility due to the difficulties in attracting and retaining registered nurses.
“We are, therefore, working with the local community group to identify a future use of the health wing as a community hub.
“A meeting is being arranged with Aberfeldy Community Council to discuss the nursing wing within Dalweem Care Home.”
At Wednesday’s community council meeting, residents admitted they had serious concerns about the future of the wing.
On Tuesday all three Highland Ward councillors, Victor Clements, chair of Aberfeldy Community Council and representatives of the Friends of Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital met to discuss the situation.
Speaking at the community council meeting the next day, Mr Clements said: “At the meeting yesterday we concluded that there is no timescale being given to us for when Dalweem’s nursing side will potentially open.
“Sadly nothing much is going on there.”
Councillor John Duff, Conservative representative for the Highland ward said: “Our hopes as a community have been built up over a long time.
“I’m not satisfied with the answers we have been given, that there are no nurses available to staff it.
“Highland Perthshire needs this to be open.
“We should get something at least into it. We can add to it incrementally. It will become more viable at Dalweem as things happen.
“Perhaps we will not get our four nursing beds, but there are other activities Dalweem can be doing as the cottage hospital’s replacement.”
Mr Clements reported that the post of occupational therapist and physiotherapist had recently been advertised.
He asked if residents felt confident of the future.
Members of the public indicated that they didn’t feel reassured the promises for their community were being stuck to.
Feelings of being let down by the current impasse come from the historic ongoing engagement programme, which included discussions on services available at
Dalweem Care Home occupies one wing, a second should be a short-stay nursing facility
Aberfeldy Community Hospital and Dalweem Residential Care Home, as well as within primary care and care at home services.
In 2014 Evelyn Devine, head of older people’s services with Perth and Kinross community health partnership, said that the Big County population of over-65s is projected to grow by around 65 per cent over the next 20 years, with the number of young people set to fall.