MSP Rhoda Grant urges NHS Highland to 'invest' in Midgale Hospital amid fears of permanent closure of Strathy ward
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Fears are growing that NHS Highland could be on the verge of permanently closing a ward at a Sutherland hospital.
NHS Highland managers are expected to make an announcement shortly about the future of the Strathy ward at Bonar Bridge’s Migdale Hospital.
The ward has been closed for long periods over the past four years due to staffing problems as well as the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant is now calling on the health board to “invest in the ward and not drive services out of the area”.
Migdale Hospital, which provides geriatric and psycho-geriatric care, was built at a cost of more than £8 million to replace a unit of the same name that was almost 150 years old.
The new hospital was opened to patients in June 2011 and officially opened by the then Health Secretary Michael Matheson in August the following year.
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The 22-bed hospital has two wards with the Strathy ward, which served as a mental health assessment unit for older adults, and the Kylesku ward which provides a range of in-patient services including palliative care, general medicine and rehabilitation services.
Problems began in 2019 when the Strathy ward closed to new admissions due to a staffing crisis. At the time NHS Highland said it had made every effort to secure registered mental health nurses, but had had little success.
Older patients requiring inpatient mental health care and who would normally have been admitted to the 10-bed Strathy ward were instead sent to New Craigs Hospital in Inverness.
The ward was closed again in March 2020 with the onset of the pandemic - although health chiefs said it had been “reconfigured” because of COVID-19..
It finally reopened two years later, in April 2022 to help ease significant pressure on bed space at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness and the Caithness General Hospital in Wick.
At the time NHS Highland's then district manager Kate Kenmure said four of the 10 beds were occupied by general patients..
The two-year closure sparked widespread criticism from Creich and Lairg community councils who lobbied Mrs Grant and other political leaders over the issue as well as NHS Highland.
Health chiefs promised a programme of community engagement on the future of the small hospital would be held by the end of 2021, but this has not happened.
Mrs Grant, who has previously criticised the "lack of transparency" over the Strathy ward said this week that she had been told by the health board that the ward’s future would be announced in the forthcoming Joint Health and Social Care Strategic Plan for 2024-2027 which is due to be announced early this year.
She said: “Sutherland and Caithness are facing serious depopulation with an ageing population. This will inevitably put pressure on the health service now and in the future. The permanent closure of this ward is therefore not in the best interests of the community. This closure has done nothing but put pressure on other hospitals and services.
“Mental health services have been centralised to New Craigs in Inverness and mental health provision in the area continues to decline due to recruitment issues. If the ward is going to be reconfigured for another purpose, I would hope extensive consultation takes place.”
A spokesperson for NHS Highland said: "No decision has been made regarding the Strathy ward in Migdale Hospital. Any decision will be made in collaboration with the local community as per NHS Highland’s joint Health and Social Care strategy."
