QUESTIONS still hang over the future of Moffat’s cottage hospital, as there no immediate plans to re-open the site, according to a new report.
The findings from the Right Care, Right Place report from Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership were presented to the Integrated Joint Board yesterday, following a long consultation into the future of Dumfries and Galloway’s cottage hospitals.
The report states that the region has nine cottage hospitals, four of which are currently closed- with no immediate plans to re-open them.
Moffat residents have repeatedly indicated that they would like to see their hospital used as the town’s medical hub, with Moffat and District Community Council chair Liam O’Neill re-asserting this view at Tuesday’s meeting, when he said: “An ideal outcome for us would be that the hospital partially was used as the GP surgery or hub with some convalescence beds. But this is something we’ll need to raise in the next round of consultations.”
The region’s politicians have also spoken out about the report’s findings.
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has stated that the proposals contained in the report are ‘a missed opportunity’. He said: “At a time when we face a care crisis in our region, with delayed discharge at epidemic levels, these proposals are a huge missed opportunity and nothing more than tinkering at the edges.
“It seems that when the health and social care partnership has no new ideas they just have more reviews and there are plans for plenty in this report without any timescales.
“The public made clear they see a role for our currently closed community hospitals to be used as step down facilities for those leaving the acute hospital but aren’t ready to go home, however those views have largely been ignored.
“The crisis in care is now, and for many it will be far too late when the health and social care partnership stop reviewing and start acting with more urgency.”
