Did 31 hospital patients die due to budget cuts?
The campaign for a new care home comes after calls have been made for a public inquiry into the 31 patients who died at Wishaw General Hospital while waiting to be discharged.
Central Wishaw Community Council have written to MSP Clare Adamson asking for her to back an investigation into the deaths.
They have questioned whether some of the patients’ deaths could have been avoided if there Belhaven Care Home hadn’t been closed or if a replacement facility had been built .
Community councillors unanimously agreed they would vigorously campaign to have a new facility in the town.
They backed a letter being sent to Ms Adamson requesting her support for a public inquiry on the following grounds:
Significant hospital delays are still being experienced throughout Lanarkshire and the demand for reablement and palliative care, and developing supports for service users with complex needs and end of life care still existed.
There appeared to be no logistical or strategical reason as to why the funding to rebuild Belhaven Home was withdrawn?
Did these people die as a direct result of budget cuts?
Alan Love, secretary of the community council, said:“I am totally shocked that 34 people fit to leave hospital died and I think, subsequently, there should be a public inquiry. Did these people die because of budget cuts?”
A spokesperson for Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire said this week:“It is wrong and wholly inappropriate to link the deaths of people in hospital to this issue.
“Community health and social work services in North Lanarkshire supported a 20 per cent increase in discharges from 2015 to 2016 for the months of August to November.
“We’ve achieved this through increases in home care hours; the number of people receiving more than 10 hours of home support and the percentage of people discharged within 72 hours.
“Further work is taking place to help tackle delayed discharge including understanding and addressing demand at Accident and Emergency; earlier notification of relatives and additional staff to carry out complex assessments.”