Health chiefs urged to do what’s best for patients
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HEALTH chiefs need to recognise what the real healthcare needs of Caithness are before making any decisions to change services that will affect patients.
That is the view of Caithness District Partnership’s health and social care public representative David Flear, who argues more research needs to be done if NHS Highland is to avoid the same public relations disaster which occurred during a previous healthcare consultation.
It was announced NHS Highland and Highland Council will be holding a stakeholder meeting looking into the redesign of healthcare provision across Caithness.
It comes after a previous consultation into the redesign of healthcare services in west Caithness collapsed after proposals to move palliative care services from Dunbar Hospital in Thurso to nursing homes and cut the opening hours of the minor injuries unit were unanimously disapproved by members of the public and the previous North Highland Community Health Partnership.
The plans were scrapped and NHS Highland said it was going back to the drawing board to re-evaluate its options.
A stakeholder event is to be arranged in the coming months that will take into account healthcare provision across the region and new proposals for any change will be submitted.
Mr Flear said the previous consultation did not seem to have a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve and added it is important any proposals are made clear from the outset.
“It is important that if any review is started it is on the basis of a better outcome at the end for patients in the future,” he said.
“Part of the previous review seemed to come across as a need to save money and a need to ration what they were offering.
“The consultation needs to start off with a blank piece of paper and work out what the needs of adults in Caithness are in the future. It should not have any preconceived ideas of shutting or expanding but actually work out what people’s needs are going to be.”
His views were echoed by Thurso councillor Roger Saxon.
“We all recognise that a mess was made the last time round in a corporate sense when the issue was being discussed,” he said.
“We hope that if the issue does go back to consultation the discussion will be meaningful and explain why, if any changes have to be made and how services will be provided if it is not to be at Dunbar.”
District manager for health and social care in Caithness and Sutherland Ross McKenzie said the consultation will take into account the whole of the far north and not just Dunbar Hospital.
He hopes the consultation will help shape the objectives of the piece of work that needs to take place.
“The work needs to take into account the pressure that services face and what in particular needs to be looked at,” he said.
“A number of stakeholders need to be involved to get a more detailed picture of what services are like for the whole of Caithness.
“As a result of the stakeholder meeting, we will be looking to take forward community infrastructure, community resilience and the premises and resources that exist in the region.”
