Councillors have stepped into a row over plans to close a mental health unit.
At a heated meeting, they quizzed health bosses about access to the services and said there had not been enough consultation.
Manchester Mental Health Trust chiefs want to shut Edale House, near Manchester Royal Infirmary.
They plan to move the unit’s 82 beds to the Park House unit, near North Manchester General, to save £1.7m a year.
Trust bosses told a Manchester council meeting that combining the two units was a straightforward relocation of services, which would save money, improve services and safeguard staff numbers.
But councillors asked whether the changes constitute a ‘substantial variation’ of health services – which requires a 12-week formal consultation.
They agreed to meet again next month to decide what further consultation should take place.
Stuart Hatton, the trust’s chief operating officer, said: “The consultation process has been a fully inclusive one.
“We have responded to the issues patients and carers have raised.
“This is the single biggest item available to us to deliver the most savings through one quality-improving change.”
But councillors complained they had not had enough time to review the proposal before the meeting.
Coun Damien O’Connor said: “I’m appalled that it’s come out like this.
“It is quite clearly a cost cutting exercise.
“I’m very concerned that people in central Manchester have not been properly consulted.”
Angela Young, from patient watchdog Link, said there needed to be further consultation but the group was still debating whether it ought to be a formal 12-week process.
She said: “There is no question this is a
difficult issue – it’s probably the first of many.
“It’s particularly tough because when mental health services are difficult to get to it aggravates the situation for the patients, their families and the people who love them.”
A delegation from health union Unison and the Manchester Users’ Network also attended the meeting and called for more discussion on the plans.
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The trouble with life is that too many people are labouring to build too many little empires and stick their hooters into everyone else's business. What has this really to do with the council? I assume that it is Mr O'Connor who is appalled...but why? Money is tight for all of us in the recession. Why should costs not be cut? And why should the people of central Manchester be consulted? The folk in the north were not consulted when the north and south were absorbed into the Central...I know, I was there! So let the council, or the individual councillors, mind there own business and let the Trust get about its business. It is too late to complain...ten to fifteen years too late. Perhaps they ought to be looking to the services that they provide and seeking savings there that do not impinge too much on the needs of Manchester's citizens?
if the number of beds are maintained then whats the problem
If it was a physical care issue then patients would have a choice of hospital. People with mental health issues have no choice at all and even less now!!!
Edale House provides an invaluable and essential service to patients and carers within central and also south manchester area. Patients in mental health units can have very long periods of hospitalisation, this of course would have an impact on relatives, carers having to travel further distance to visit.
Is there going to be 82 beds at Park House or is it going to be the same situation when Withington Hospital closed,
The lack of available acute beds is appalling now and has anyone considered the effect this closure would have on the community mental health teams.
To Whom It May Concern,
Manchester Council has responsibility for part of the running of Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust until and if the Trust become a Foundation Trust later next year. We would very much expect the comments from elected councillors like Coun O.Connor of Newton Heath who is also a member of the Council Health Scrutiny committee. Therefore, it is part of his legal duties to question what is being done by those who are presently members of the Trust Board and also responsible and answerable to the people of Manchester.
Paul Reed. Vice Chair of Manchester Users Network. www.manchesterusersnetwork.org.uk
I am a carer in central Manchester and neither myself or the person I care for has been consulted in any way about the proposed closure of the mental health in-patient unit the Edale Unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary. A community psychiatric nurse gave me the name and address of Maeve Boyle based at the Rawnsley building to complain to about the closure. I cannot express enough how in our opinion the closure of these wards will be detrimental to the local people of central Manchester who depend on the psychiatric service's provided by Manchester Royal Infirmary. Why should patient's in Central Manchester be sent miles away from their home's to be isolated in a hospital and area they do not know or have any connection with, at a very distressing time in their life. Mental health services are already cut to the bone and with the impending loss of the Edale Unit people in Central Manchester will no longer have local in-patient service. The pressure on already stretched mental health service's will only get worse. Central Manchester is a highly populated area and needs the Edale Unit as well as the out patient facilities provided by the Rawnsley buildind also based at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Everyone I have talked to who depends on the psychiatric service's provided by Manchester Royal Infirmary is opposed to the closure of the Edale Unit and want the Trust to re-consider the decision to close the Edale Unit and allow it to stay open.