NHS Highland should hang head in shame

Sir,

As secretary of Sunart Community Council at the time of the last attempt by NHS Highland to engineer circumstances whereby it could bring about the closure of the essential residential care facility at Strontian’s Dail Mhor care home, I was involved in the battle to expose its agenda and to secure the continued operation of the home.

It is no surprise, therefore, to read (The Oban Times, December 21) that the current community council chair has found NHS Highland to be ‘disrespectful’ in its latest attempt to bring about closure of the home for the reason of the building being ‘not fit for purpose’. Its job is to make it fit for purpose and we all know this is merely a term coined to offer justification for the shocking plan to close it.

As it did last time, NHS Highland unashamedly tried to deceive the community with assurances about its commitment to delivering the best possible care system for local elderly people while promising to consult with the community as to how best to achieve that.

The truth is that the six-bed unit is expensive to run and it wants to close it in favour of any other variety of non-residential uses. While such additional uses may be desirable, they cannot be allowed to cloud the acute need for residential facilities at Dail Mhor, and if a six-bed facility is not economically viable, then NHS Highland must increase the size of it, not close it.

I venture to guess that if any of the well-paid NHS Highland managers who are responsible for this lived in a remote area along with their elderly relatives, they might just think it not such a good idea to have those relatives placed in care facilities so far away from the support of their families, where visiting becomes an expensive and time-consuming ordeal that cannot be undertaken very often.

I know the phrase is used more often than it should, but I think ‘they should hang their heads in shame’ is entirely appropriate.

Alan Thomson, Kilcamb Paddock, Strontian.