'Traffic jam of mental health care tailbacks'
THE Margaret Stanhope Centre’s namesake has revealed the ‘disastrous domino effect’ that closing the unit would have on regional health care, a campaigner has claimed.
Dr Matt Long, leader of the Friends of Margaret Stanhope Forum, spoke after Margaret Stanhope blasted health chiefs’ plans to axe the centre as part of a shakeup of inpatient psychiatric care in South Staffordshire.
As reported in yesterday’s Mail, the Tory, who represents the Alrewas and Fradley ward on Lichfield District Council, has persuaded the authority to scrap its backing for the closure proposal and oppose it instead.
She said transferring psychiatric care from hospitals to the community ‘was a policy we can all support — but not at the cost of leaving a large population without any inpatient care’.
Responding, Dr Long said: “We applaud Councillor Stanhope for picking up the hammer and putting the proverbial nail in the coffin into the dying idea that Burton can cope without some sort of institutional provision for acutely mentally ill people.
“By persuading Lichfield District Council to do a U-turn and scrap plans to back the closure of Burton’s inpatient psychiatric facility, she has further galvanised our snowballing campaign.”
Dr Long said that at the public consultation meeting on their proposals in October at the Pirelli Stadium, health chiefs implored the people of Burton to be ‘less parochial’ and encouraged them to consider the ‘bigger picture’ across South Staffordshire.
“Councillor Stanhope has drawn back the curtain to reveal the full horror of this ‘bigger picture’, which would see the Margaret Stanhope’s closure have a disastrous domino effect on health care across the region,” he said.
“With hospitals overcrowded in Lichfield, Tamworth and Stafford, this would, in effect, create a traffic jam of mental health care tailbacks as the rush hour demand on mental health services continues to increase due to regional demographics.
“We urge health chiefs to accept that proposals for Stanhope closure are firmly dead and buried and to drop the idea before the long-term effects come back from the grave to haunt them like ghosts.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that bosses at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital are examining Dr Long’s suggestion that inpatient psychiatric services could be retained in Burton by moving the service offered by the Margaret Stanhope into one of its wings or wards.
“We have had brief discussions with the Staffordshire cluster of primary care trusts and have agreed to undertake some initial work on the feasibility of configuring services differently,” said Helen Ashley, chief executive of Burton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
