Dementia patients are still being cared for on the mainland, 15 months after the closure of a specialist ward on the Isle of Wight, a fact called unacceptable by a health watchdog.
Following an inspection from the Care Quality Commission, Shackleton Ward, at St Mary’s Hospital in Newport, was deemed ‘unfit for purpose’ and underwent a £200,000 refurbishment before it closed ‘indefinitely’ in September last year.
Since then patients with dementia and complex mental health needs have been unable to receive treatment on the Isle of Wight and have been placed in mainland facilities.
Currently, 4 patients still remain off the Island.
Speaking at a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s policy and scrutiny committee for health and social care, Dr Lesley Stevens, executive director of mental health and learning disabilities at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said a plan will be worked up in the next 3 to 6 months to determine the future of specialist dementia care on the Island. It will include the provision of a dementia outreach service — community-based help to minimise patient admission into hospital.
Dr Stevens said:
“The outcome we want to achieve is to stop or absolutely minimise sending people off-Island to mainland beds.
“The community provision is one way of achieving that, developing dementia beds is another but we need to work through how we do that.
Article continues below this advertisement “We are in this position because of quality concerns around Shackleton and there are real challenges in delivering highly specialised, very small services that are isolated.
“We don’t want to recreate that [problematic] service. We want to be absolutely assured that we can do this in a way that improves outcomes and is safe.”
Joanna Smith, manager of Isle of Wight Healthwatch, said it was just not acceptable that people had to leave the Island to seek the treatment they need — particularly during the current COVID climate. She said:
“It is difficult enough for anyone to have to face treatment off-Island but when you have got significant problems due to dementia or Alzheimer’s they are compounded.”
One of the challenges with the off-Island placements, Dr Stevens said, is the discharge process on the mainland is slower than on the Island.
Since Shackleton had closed the number of occupied bed days off-Island were fewer but ‘still too many’ and more work needed to be done.
Cllr Michael Lilley, a member of the scrutiny committee, questioned how the patients’ families needs were being treated, as he said it is often the family who are more distressed than the needs of those being cared for. He said:
“These patients are human beings, they are part of families and the separation must be incredibly traumatic for the families.”
Dr Stevens said the trust’s dementia outreach team was working very closely with the families, ensuring communication and the right support is being offered and has been factored in as a ‘really critical part’ of the new work.
