Aberfeldy Community Hospital has been closed early to new admissions due to staff shortages, NHS Tayside has admitted.
The decision comes as part of a move towards a “new model” of integrated community and in-patient care in Aberfeldy.
However, the closure of the hospital’s five-bed ward has caused confusion among some residents who believed any changes would not take place until next summer.
The changes in Aberfeldy and the surrounding area will see health and social care facilities combined, with elderly people being looked after in the community rather than in hospital.
Health chiefs said the local community were consulted on the changes and backed the redevelopment of the vacant wing in Aberfeldy’s Dalweem Residential Care Home to include healthcare, respite and rehabilitation facilities.
Work is now under way to transform Dalweem, which is due to be completed next spring.
Aberfeldy Community Council chairman Victor Clements stated that the closure of the ward may only be a temporary measure.
He said: “There has been quite a good consultation about this for the past two years so people have been quite relaxed about the process, about taking the hospital, the nursing home and the medical facilities and putting them all in one place. That was seen to be a good thing.
“Both the nursing home and the hospital are underused in different ways. The problem is that that process was to take place in June next year.”
One concerned resident said: “The community knew it was going to be closed next summer.
“All of a sudden on Wednesday last week the hospital has just been closed. A notice was put up about staff shortages. Everyone’s up in arms.”
NHS Tayside health chiefs stated that, after discussions with Aberfeldy GPs who provide the medical cover for the hospital, it was agreed that there will be no admissions to the Breadalbane Ward at this time “as there are ongoing challenges in recruiting appropriately trained nursing staff to hospital vacancies”.
NHS Tayside medical director Dr Andrew Russell said: “Now is the right time to start introducing the new models of care into Aberfeldy and its surrounding communities as we transition services to the new in-patient facility in Dalweem.”