Strathy ward at Migdale Hospital back in use after two years with no patients
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The Strathy ward at Bonar Bridge’s Migdale Hospital, which has been effectively closed for two years, has finally reopened to patients.
Four of the 10 beds in the ward are now occupied, NHS Highland district manager Kate Kenmure reported to Creich Community Council at its meeting on Tuesday.
The ward reopening comes in a bid to help alleviate significant pressure on bed space at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, and the Caithness General Hospital.
The rest of the beds in the ward are also expected to be put to use over the next six months.
However Ms Kenmure said the ward was not being used for its original function, which was as an older adult mental health assessment unit.
“The beds are being used as community hospital beds for the same type of patients as in the Kylesku ward - rehabilitation and recuperation, to get people back on their feet and ready to go home or to make plans to go into long-term care,” she said.
Community councils in central Sutherland have been flagging up their concern about the lack of use of the Strathy ward amid fears for the future of the £8 million hospital, built just 11 years ago.
Ms Kenmure said that difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified psycho geriatric nurses followed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic had led to the ward being closed to dementia patients in 2019. Instead it was identified as a possible overflow ward should bed capacity be exceeded in the wider hospital set-up. That remained the case.
“It is good the beds have not been used but it does mean they have been lying empty,” she said.
A long promised community consultation over the future of the ward would take place, she stressed, but pointed out that thinking on the best way to manage dementia patients had changed with hospitalisation now regarded as a last resort.
“We have got various options - reopen the ward as it was; reopen as one big community hospital or do something completely different," she said.
“I have thought of lots of different things we could do – such as cataract surgery. We are trying to think out of the box as to what would be good, but it all costs money.
“We did intend to do this (the consultation) over the summer but then we got another wave of Covid. We were just absolutely overwhelmed and could not do it and my apologies for that. We are now looking to the end of summer.
Community council chairman Peter Campbell said: “What has upset people is the unused capacity, but your explanation makes sense. Like everyone else in the country you seem to be short of staff. It is reassuring to hear that in the fullness of time the hospital will be put back to some full capacity use.”
