The people of Blairgowrie have turned out in force to have their say on the future of their community hospital.
It was standing room only with over 300 people packing Blairgowrie High School hall for the meeting on Tuesday evening, organised by the Action Group for Blairgowrie Community Hospital, supported by the Friends of Blairgowrie Community Hospital.
Chaired by Alasdair Drummond, the audience raised their concerns with a panel made up of NHS Tayside chairman Sandy Watson, chief executive Gerry Marr, Tayside medical director Dr Andrew Russell and general manager of Perth and Kinross Community Health Partnership Bill Nicoll.
The meeting opened with comments from local GP Alastair Shaw, who stressed he was speaking as an individual.
“I want that facility to be there for me as it has been for others over very many years,” he said of the community hospital.
He said his appreciation of the skilled and caring nursing provided there had grown over the years and the turnout at the meeting was testimony to the esteem in which the hospital was held.
Dr Shaw said the hospital had evolved and he had no doubt it had a future, but asked the panel, “The hospital will survive but what we want to know is in what shape?”
Mr Watson assured the audience that no matter what they might have heard there was no intention by NHS Tayside to close or downgrade the hospital and is in fact proposing to invest more than £700,000 in it.’Listening mode’He said NHS Tayside is committed to community engagement and is determined to work with the public on deciding the way forward.
Mr Watson assured the audience, “We are in listening mode. I hope that tonight is part of moving forward together.”
Following a question from the floor asking whether care at the hospital was being eroded, Mr Marr assured those present that no binding decisions had been taken.
Audience member David Carson said the palliative care provided at the hospital was particularly precious to the community. He asked what guarantees could be given that this would be retained.
Dr Russell told him that that Blairgowrie provided a “model of care that they would want for everyone.”
Mr Carson told the panel that palliative care was one of the priorities for the meeting and should be a top priority in a reconfigured hospital.
Also raised with the panel was step-down care, a halfway house between treatment at PRI or Ninewells before patients go home, and the questioner asked if fewer beds at Blairgowrie was really the way forward.BedsMr Marr said this was a less straightforward issue as appropriate support meant people could go home and he felt the length of stay in hospital could be shorter.
Mr Watson gave a guarantee the number of beds would be under constant review and action would be taken to rectify any shortfall.
The growth in the elderly population and a subsequent rise in the number of dementia patients was also brought up by the audience, with concerns raised about the move to care at home rather than hospital admissions.
The panel said this had brought benefits with over 200 patients in the community receiving assistance compared with 34 inpatients.
Mr Marr said that the service would be subject to an evaluation that would be made public.
Blairgowrie Community Hospital provides around 20 clinics at present which attracts around thousands of users each year and the audience seemed reassured by answers that this would largely continue, with only clinics used by a handful of people looked at.