MSP: Closing Mulberry Unit ‘a waste of money’

Mairi Evans plans to hold series of events and encourages public to get involved

NHS Tayside should be doing all it can to keep the Mulberry Unit open.

MAIRI EVANS MSP

An Angus MSP has said that the closure of a mental health unit at Stracathro Hospital would be a “catastrophic waste of public money”.

NHS Tayside plans to shut the Mulberry Unit at Stracathro and the Moredun ward at Perth’s Murray Royal and centralise its mental health services at the Carseview Centre in Dundee.

A three-month public consultation period started yesterday.

There has been anger at the plans to close the Mulberry Unit, opened only five years ago as the main part of the £20 million Susan Carnegie Centre at Stracathro.

Angus North and Mearns MSP Mairi Evans has said she plans to hold a series of events in Angus to encourage people to take part in the consultation.

She said: “I want to be absolutely clear on the issue of the Mulberry Unit: NHS Tayside should be doing all it can to keep the Mulberry Unit open,” she said.

“It opened in 2011 and cost £20m. That is a significant investment, and it would be a catastrophic waste of public money if, after less than six years, this unit was to close.”

Former Angus provost Ruth Leslie Melville said the closure of the unit would “bring shame” on NHS Tayside.

MSP Mairi Evans wants NHS Tayside to do all it can to keep the Mulberry Unit open.