Lairg community councillors demand answers over 'half-empty' Migdale Hospital
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NHS Highland has come under fire from Sutherland community councillors over Migdale Hospital which has been running at half capacity for more than a year, it is claimed.
Members of Lairg Community Council have slammed the continuing closure to geriatric patients of one of the two wards at the Bonar Bridge hospital as “shocking” and a “disgrace”.
Fears have been raised over the future of the hospital and the resultant loss of employment to the area.
Community council chairman Andrew Mackay said: “A £10 million hospital that is only nine-years old with only half of it functioning is shocking. They are just using it (the ward) as office space. It is standing there doing nothing."
Purpose built and opened in 2011 to replace the former Migdale Hospital, the unit has two wards and 22 beds.
The Strathy ward catered for older people with mental health problems and another ward offered a range of in-patient services, such as palliative care, general medicine and rehabilitation services.
A staffing crisis in late 2019 saw the Strathy ward closed to new admissions. At the time NHS Highland said it had made every effort to obtain registered mental health nursing cover but had had little success.
Older patients requiring inpatient mental health care and who would normally have been admitted to Migdale, were instead sent to New Craigs Hospital in Inverness.
It is not known whether the ward reopened before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.
In September last year Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant attacked an alleged “lack of transparency'' over the Strathy Ward which she said was effectively no longer in operation despite NHS Highland’s claims it had not closed but had been “reconfigured” because of Covid-19.
The issue was raised again by Lairg community councillor Jackie Young at the group’s meeting on May 5.
She asked: “Do we know or how do we find out, is this ward that is lying empty ever going to open? Could we get someone from NHS Highland along to speak to us about their plans?
"There are a lot of jobs in this area connected to Migdale. This ward has now been empty for a year and personally, I feel quite strongly that it is worrying."
She added: "I did hear that the office staff are being shifted to Golspie and I do think it is time the NHS spoke to the communities - whether to us, Bonar Bridge or Ardgay or all of us together, to tell us what is happening because it is a shocking waste of a good hospital.
"Should we get in touch with the other communities? I am sure it is of interest to everyone."
Fellow community councillor Sandy Allison said: "It is an absolute disgrace. There is a shortage of beds and the ward is lying there empty. The hospital has more staff than it has patients."
Highland councillor Linda Munro, who was at the meeting, advised that the community council contact NHS Highland north area manager Kate Kenmure.
An NHS Highland spokeswoman told the Northern Times: "Like many other wards across Highland, Strathy ward was changed during the mobilisation of services to create capacity to respond to COVID-19. This service is being provided from New Craigs Hospital during the pandemic period.
"The situation remains the same but please be assured that NHS Highland has this and all of our responses to the pandemic under continual review in line with our remobilisation planning."
