The Kintyre Forum

Semple Calls for common sense approach to Southern Cross Crisis

Campbeltown SNP Councillor, John Semple, has called on the council to use some common sense in dealing with the Kintyre Care Home which has been caught up in the Crisis surrounding Southern Cross operators of the home which accommodates 39 of Kintyre’s elderly people. It became apparent following a recent meeting of the Mid-Argyll, Kintyre & Islay Area Committee that the “Contingency Plan” being developed by the Council included the options to relocate residents to the Council run Ardfenaig care home in Ardrishaig or Campbeltown Hospital. Councillor Semple Said,

‘ I have been in contact with Lib-Dem Councillor, Andrew Nisbet the Spokesperson for Community Services who is responsible for this plan for the Kintyre Care Home, I have stressed to him that relocation of residents away for the Kintyre area would be totally unacceptable to this community’

‘it is imperative that people who have chosen to spent their remaining years in Kintyre to be close to home and loved ones are not forcibly relocated in another part of the country, causing enormous stress for these frail and valued members of our community and their families.

‘as for the option for relocation within the Campbeltown hospital, this is utter madness, I have contacted the NHS and have been informed that such a relocation would mean there would be no beds left in Campbeltown, so all our sick and injured would end up being transported to Oban or Glasgow. I cannot believe this Liberal, Tory, Alliance Administration is considering this as a realistic suggestion’

I call on Councillor Nesbit to rule out relocation to Ardfenaig. Southern cross may have gone into receivership but the purpose built Kintyre Care home will still be in Campbeltown irrespective of what happens to Southern Cross, there is no other viable alternative. Argyll & Bute Council must give a reassurance that our elderly who can no longer be looked after at home will still be looked after in their own community. Councillor Nesbit has to date refused to give that assurance’

It appears that some things don't change!

Council were quite happy to send young children miles away to school.Now they are proposing to do the same for local elderly.

Many of these people have only elderly relatives and friends,who would find it impossible to travel the distance to visit.

How many local residents find this unbelievable?

If I am reading this correctly, and I hope I'm not, our elected officials are toying with the idea of shipping our wrinklies out of Kintyre for financial reasons. They should be bloody ashamed of themselves for even thinking of it.
Pity we have no railway, we could shove them up to Ardrishaig in cattle trucks. BA****DS.

why is it that I always think that kintyre is treated completely differently than the rest of Scotland, we are treated like the BA&*$#d stepchild and I fee,l mostly ignored until some type of crisis pops up, then as an afterthought A&B go OHHH Aye forgot about them doon there. To send our old people who have family and friend in the area to parts unknown is an absolute disgrace shame on them for even thinking about it.

this is no different than the situation that existed about 3 years ago when it was proposed that when they built the new hospital at Mid Argyll that there would be no allowance for patients from the old hospital that suffered from dementia, one of the proposals was to put them back into the community, and the other was to move them to other hospitals within NHS Highland. The only other hospital in NHS Highland that has a suitable dementia ward in in Inverness, and therefore there was the distinct possibility that patients from Campbeltown, Islay, Jura, Colonsay Oban and Mull could have been sent there.

I eventually had to write to NHS Highland, ALL the Local Councillors, the MP for the area and Alex Salmond direct, I received a reply from The office of the First Minister, stating they would look into it, I received a letter from the MP and I received a very prompt phone call within 24 hours of receiving my letter from Councillor Donald Kelly, who voiced his concerns and whom I know did follow up my concerns at council meetings, now I do not know if it was decided by the local councillors or not that Donald would be the voice for all, but he was the only one that I received any acknowledgement from on the issue.

Following my concerns (opening up a hornets nest), there was a public consultation on the issue and all plans for moving elderly people with dementia back into the community or to far off places was subsequently scrapped, although I do know of one Campbeltown resident who has to travel to Helensburgh by bus to visit their elderly relative as they were moved there from Mid Argyll when they could possibly have been moved back to Campbeltown.

I do not know what bright spark/eejit/half-witt within NHS Highland that thought up either of those ideas for re-housing people who are suffering from dementia and are at the stage where they need constant care and who are not only a danger to themselves but to others in an unsupervised environment, or thought about re-locating them to an area that is hundreds of miles away from their families and friends, and is in not easily accessible by public or private transport, but one thing I do know is they obviously aint fit for the job in question. On the subject of questions, I submitted a letter to them (NHS Highland) with about 20 questions on the whole fiasco, it covering all areas from:-

1. What if they were to build a dementia unit in the new hospital, what size would it be considering that people with
dementia require large areas to roam around in.

2. What ratio of pen pushers was there within NHS Highland in ratio to Doctors and Nursing staff and what was their
subsequent budget for employing each group

3. What would happen to the old hospital property, and if it was sold off what would happen to the money (dont worry I
had my ideas on what parties might be interested in it if it was sold off and that was partly confirmed to me by
accident in a telephone conversation to me, during my investigations), some of the questions were answered and
some were answered in a very economical fashion and some they tried to loose in bureaucracy which I told them i was
quite prepared to get under the freedom of information act.

So in closing, I can completely sympathise with anyone that has concerns about their elderly relatives being shipped out due the possible closure of the nursing home, If these people that are making these decisions cannot use common sense then they are obviously not fit for the post that they are in, and I just hope that for their sake the same situation does not come knocking at their door in future years (I could quite happily continue writing on the subject of the last sentence but better not for fear of liable action, but im sure we are all clever enough to know in what direction I might have gone in)

Just remember that these people who make these decisions are employed/elected by us, the TAX payer/constituent and we have the right to ask them to step down if we feel that their decision is not correct or consider they are not fit for the position they hold, if you feel strongly about this, then exercise ur right as their employer and ask for answers and if needed their notice.

The only saving grace is than now that West Coast Motors has a 5 a day service to Glasgow, it is far more accessible to , get to Ardrishaig and back for those that have to relay on or prefer to use public transport, but that still does not make up for the possible inconvenience of having visiting relatives/tax payers that have been shunted of to some far off place where they dont know anybody