Challenge NHSH on failure to provide essential facilities

I have often read in The Oban Times and Lochaber Times press releases from the Joint Community Council Working Group which extol the initiatives by the Working Group and NHS Highland to maximise the use of the Dail Mhor care home for the benefit of the communities of Ardnamurchan.

In addition, every month in our local De tha dol? we are provided with a Dail Mhor Update, including a regular report on the fact that ‘respite beds’ are being utilised almost to capacity.

Now, while all the peripheral facilities are very welcome and appreciated, the community has made clear to the Working Group and to NHSH that the facility, which is by far the most important to the residents of these remote communities, is permanent residential care beds.

It is noticeable, however, that never in any of the reports or updates is the matter of permanent beds mentioned. It’s as though both organisations believe that by not mentioning ‘the elephant in the room’ members of the communities will in time forget about it. It is, after all, a minor inconvenience for families to visit more distant facilities for a small period of respite care compared with the life committing need to travel such distances to visit their loved ones on a permanent basis.

I would urge the Combined Working Group to start seriously challenging NHSH by public campaign on their failure to provide absolutely essential care facilities for the elderly residents of these remote areas, or to explain why they are failing in the single most important reason for their existence.

Alan Thomson, Kilcamb Paddock, Strontian.