Care home targeted for closure since 2016
Councillor hits out
A Rutherglen care home unit facing an uncertain future has been targeted for closure since 2016, the Reformer can reveal.
Documents from planning meetings show that NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde bosses identified Limetree Unit at the Rutherglen care home on Rodger Drive as a savings target two years ago.
Last week we told how patients at the palliative care unit were told they could be moved back into hospital, leaving them distressed.
Now Rutherglen South councillor Robert Brown has called for health bosses to stop treating Rutherglen and Cambuslang as a “bureaucratic anomaly”.
He said: “I am pretty certain that none of the local councillors were advised of what was happening here – I certainly wasn’t.
“Even worse it is now clear from documents the Reformer has identified that NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have been trying to offload the Limetree Unit for several years.
“I have written to the chief executives of both Glasgow and Lanarkshire health boards demanding more information as to what is happening and why it appears to being slipped through away from public knowledge.
“There may be good arguments for changing the way the NHS provide or support services. There is no argument at all for doing these things privately without public knowledge or debate.
“It is also high time that the Rutherglen and Cambuslang area was properly treated by the two health boards rather than being an inconvenient bureaucratic anomaly.
“The reality is that, despite the focus on Lanarkshire organisation and council links, geography means that many local people want to continue to be dealt with either locally or by Glasgow hospitals or other services.”