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cuddlepop
29-Jun-09, 13:12
Please take note as to the plans Highland Health Board have for Skye and Lochalsh.This "procedure" will be rolled out all over Highland.

Its not just maternity beds that are under threat.

This "cull" in available beds was done with no consultation with community or our local GP's who run the hospital,:( its a disgrace.:mad:

Highland area
28/04/2009 | Mid Highland



NHS Highland services across the Mid Highland area are being redesigned as part of a national move away from hospital-based services and towards the provision of more services in the community.



Mid Highland Community Health Partnership (CHP) General Manager, Gill McVicar, explained that the service improvement and redesign work currently being carried out in the CHP was happening across NHS Highland and the entire country.

She said the aim was to deliver as wide a range of services as possible as locally as possible, while working within the available budget.

Scottish Government policy recommends that the focus and balance of service needs to shift from hospitals to community services to cater for an increasingly ageing population and a need for more care at home.

Mrs McVicar said they also needed to be able to take advantage of ever improving health technologies and drugs, but she pointed out that these were expensive and had to be paid for from within existing resources.

She added that in light of the fact that NHS Highland’s financial settlement, and therefore the CHP budget for future years, was very tight, it was essential that resources were used as efficiently as possible to continue to deliver the best care for patients and the best value for the public.

Mrs McVicar said the CHP management team had undertaken a review of all services and had, in the first instance, identified areas of inefficiency and waste that required to be addressed.

She said: “This will release resource, both in staffing and monetary terms, for investment elsewhere, whilst maintaining and improving the quality of care delivered to patients.”

And one of the things they are looking at, as part of a package of efficiency measures across the CHP, is the current pattern of use of hospital beds and reasons for admission.

Mrs McVicar said:“For example, in Skye and Lochalsh, we have 43 beds, but our activity figures have shown that we have not needed to use any more than 28 in the last year.
“In addition, some of the admissions could have been avoided with better anticipatory care and a stronger community care infrastructure. Initially, therefore, as a good housekeeping measure, we are looking at removing beds from the system that are not used.
“However we need to do this in a measured and safe way to ensure we are able to deliver good quality patient care that is required for our area.”

She added that removing six empty beds from service in Portree and two in Broadford would still leave capacity and would not result in patients having to move out of the area for treatment, unless the clinical need indicated this was necessary.

Mrs McVicar said: “Patients who require care will have their needs met, the reduction in these beds will not affect that as they are surplus to requirements and we have other services to support patients in the locality.
“This move is not about cutting services but moving resources to where they will bring the greatest benefits to patients and, in so doing, we need to release some resource to pay for specialist developments, such as further developments in cardiac care, expansion of renal services and a state of the art day case unit.”

She pointed out that there had already been considerable investment in Skye and Lochalsh, including £2.6million in the redesign and upgrading of Portree Hospital, £3.3million in the new Lochalsh Healthcare Centre and almost £400,000 in the services provided by general practitioners.

A meeting has been held between NHS Highland representatives and local councillors and work to date on redesign and service improvement in Mid Highland was explained at the CHP Governance Committee Meeting at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Sleat, on Skye, on Friday April 24. This meeting was open to the public.

The next steps will be discussed at workshops to be held in June and public representatives and members of the press will be invited to attend to explore the options with clinical staff.

Mrs McVicar added that, in the longer term, one of the options being considered was to develop a new hospital for Skye and Lochalsh.


Further information
Contact:Sue Restan

Role:Communications Officer