A consultation is being launched over the provision of local in-patient mental health care.
The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) and the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) has been exploring proposals since 2019 after a fire destroyed part of the George Bryan Centre in Mile Oak.
A plan being considered would see inpatient treatment for adults with a severe mental illness or dementia in the area to the St George’s Hospital in Stafford.
Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, the chief medical officer for the ICB, said:
“I can assure everyone that no final decision has been made, and the feedback gathered during the consultation will be a part of the evidence used by the board when we do.”
Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones
More details about the proposals are available online.
What a nonsense. Presumably an insurance payout was received for the damage to the George Bryan centre. What happened to this, and why wasn’t it repaired and put back into service? The current provision for inpatient mental health services is pathetic, and one hospital at Stafford is inadequate, apart from the problems in transport. From what I have been told, St George’s cannot cope now. I look forward to the consultation, but I am pessimistic that it will make any difference.
Surely the area needs its own adequate and accessible mental health facilities? Making vulnerable people and their families travel to Stafford in order to receive face to face care and consultation is unrealistic and dangerous. This wont be good enough and if it happens it should worry all of us.