No choice on bed cuts

Published: 24 February, 2011

• ON Wednesday I attended a consultation meeting about the mental health trust’s (Camden and Islington Foundation Trust) plans to close 103 beds in Camden.  

It was a surreal experience because:

a) 44 beds at the Grove Centre are to be closed without discussion or consultation;

b) the proposals we were supposed to take a view on made no sense because they asked for a choice between 40 older people’s beds at Queen Mary’s House, and 70 adult psychiatric beds at the Huntley Centre in St Pancras Hospital.  

This is like trying to compare apples with pears. If 40 older people’s beds are closed at Queen Mary’s House, the people affected cannot be accommodated in the Huntley Centre because it is already full and providing care to an entirely different age-group. 

If 70 adult psychiatric beds are closed at Huntley, the people affected cannot be accommodated at Queen Mary’s House because they are not an appropriate age-group.  So it looks like a meaningless choice, wide open to conspiracy theories.

In one part of the consultation document there is reference to 20 older people in NHS continuing care beds, for whom the NHS has a statutory obligation.  This is followed by a shockingly vague statement saying: “If Queen Mary’s House is chosen as one of the sites to close, these beds will be made available somewhere else in Camden and Islington”. 

We can assume that will be the old workhouse building of South Wing at St Pancras Hospital, a far cry from the pleasant surroundings at Queen Mary’s House. 

There is no clarity for any of the older people and their families, who are currently very happy with Queen Mary’s House, about where they would go, should a closure go ahead.

These bed closures rely on the maintenance of strong community services for people with mental health difficulties. 

However, we were told that the trust has to make £12.7million of cuts next year. 

Draw your own conclusions.

PENNY ABRAHAM
Lady Somerset Road, NW5