Mulberry unit’s closure approved

Confirmation brings fears for future of Stracathro Hospital

Assurances are being sought over the future of Stracathro Hospital after the long-feared confirmation of the Mulberry mental health unit’s death knell.

The ward, mothballed for almost a year, has been formally axed under a Taysidewide remodelling of mental health services.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Perth and Kinross Integration Joint Board yesterday following months of consultation, campaigning and protest.

Local MSP Mairi Gougeon condemned the decision as “bitterly disappointing” and is seeking assurances over the future of the Angus hospital.

Branding the public consultation over Mulberry a “tick box exercise”, she warned: “No matter how it is dressed up, this is a real blow to Angus and will make in-patient care for many of my constituents much harder to access.”

Health chiefs in Tayside have confirmed two centres of excellence are the only safe way forward for inpatient mental health services.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Perth and Kinross Integration Joint Board following months of consultation, campaigning and protest.

It will mean general adult psychiatry acute admissions are centralised at the Carseview centre at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

Learning disability inpatient services will be provided at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth, alongside other specialist services, including rehabilitation and substance misuse.

The decision will see services relocated from the Strathmartine Hospital and the outdated Mulberry unit at Stracathro Hospital in Angus.

The board voted by five to one (an abstention) in favour of the preferred option.

Individual health and social care partnerships in Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross will be working to enhance mental health and learning disability services in local communities, where 94% of all mental health care is delivered.

NHS Tayside and the partnerships hope to see the redesigned mental health service in place by summer 2020.

More than 100,000 people took part in a much criticised consultation process. More than 57% of respondents said they were against the proposals now set in motion.

NHS Tayside medical director Andy Russell insisted the redesign proposed is “the only safe option”.

He said it would also provide “sustainable and high quality” mental health services for the people of Tayside into the future.

“There is realism around these proposals,” he said. “We cannot provide a service that we then have to tell the public we cannot staff. That would be terrible. It would undermine public confidence.”

Dr Stuart Doig, interim director for mental health and learning disabilities, said: “The most important factors are ensuring high quality mental health care is available to everyone in Tayside and is provided in hospital environments that are not only safe but therapeutic.”