Health and Social Care Hub being Proposed for Barra

1 December, 2009 - 11:15 — admin

Health and Social Care Hub being Proposed for Barra 

Around 40 people turned out on a dreadful night on Monday 9th November to find out what progress was being made towards a new hospital for Barra. The meeting, called by Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil, heard from Gordon Jamieson, Chief Executive of NHS Western Isles, Malcolm Burr, Chief Executive Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and Iain MacAulay, Head of Social Work and Children’s Services. Gordon Jamieson outlined the progress of the Health Board’s Clinical Strategy, in which a new hospital and Hub for Barra is clearly placed on the priority list, and he also stated that consultation on this strategy will be drawn to a close by the summer 2010. Both Malcolm Burr and Iain MacAulay gave details of the way forward for the Social Care side of St Brendan’s in that the Health board and Comhairle are looking to take forward a joint project to replace the Hospital and the Home with one new building, which will also create a Hub in which Health and Social Care services are incorporated together. That is the proposed new building will have the hospital, home, doctors surgery, dentist, community nurses, social work and all other services linked to Health and social care.
 
In response to concerns raised that there would be delays due to the Comhairle’s Capital programme being out of sync with the Health Board’s capital programme, assurances were given that progress would be made by both the Health Board and by the Comhairle who have applied to the Government for funding through the Government’s Hub initiative to start the preliminary work required to take this project forward. Those present at the meeting, while welcoming the major improvement to facilities to be included in the new hospital, made it very clear that any reduction in hospital beds would not be acceptable, and that we, as a community were looking for more, not less, hospital beds to meet our needs for the years to come.