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Mental illness units to be cut in Gwent

THE number of hospital units in Gwent for older people with a mental illness that is not dementia, will be cut from four to two under proposals from Aneurin Bevan Health Board.

The idea is to be publicly consulted upon, as part of plans for the second phase of a redesign of older adult mental health services.

If approved, the move will reduce the number of beds for such patients - known as functional beds - to 24 from 29, to be provided at St Woolos Hospital in Newport, and County Hospital, Griffithstown, with functional units at Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm in Ebbw Vale, and at Ty Glas in Ystrad Mynach, being closed.

A key aim is to develop separate functional and organic (for dementia patients) units, to help the development of highly skilled expert teams specialising in the treatment of one particular type of patient.

The redesign of services will also help achieve single-sex wards, in line with Welsh Government guidance.

Phase one of the redesign, carried out late last year, involved the closure of the unfit-for-purpose, nine-bed Ty Bryn ward at Maindiff Court Hospital, near Abergavenny, with dementia patients being moved to Chepstow community hospital or Hafen Deg ward at County Hospital's Ty Siriol unit.

Patients with functional (non-dementia) illness were also moved to Hafen Deg ward, but the phase two proposal will separate them.

Mental health bosses believe the reduction in functional beds is not a problem, as currently one-in-five of the 29 available are unoccupied at any one time.

The development of a non-dementia unit in Torfaen would mean dementia patients from the county borough having to go to Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm, which along with Ystrad Mynach would become dementia-only units.

Subject to the public consultation, the health board aims to begin the phase two changes in December.

A third phase, likely to be introduced next year, could see a single 19-bed non-dementia unit established at County Hospital.


Comments (6)

29/07/12

Mervyn James says...

I suppose the reason is beds, they are all in the Olympic Stadium being jumped on by idiots, in London, £27m wasted on gratuitous and greedy corporate sponsorships, while 1 in 4 of the population suffers some form of poor mental Health. To add insult to injury, they lauded the NHS, the very system Cameron is determined to bring down.

29/07/12

mrkjohnson28 says...

Milwa
ukee Moving Company

29/07/12

Taffeta says...

My mother had dementia before she died - her treatment was appalling and none of her so-called home carers had any training to help her - there was no facility to accomodate her and following a fall alone at home, she died. So now, anyone with dementia are to be shipped off to Ystrad Mynach - great! Why not have done with it and just tip them off the Severn Bridge and wait for the tide? It would be cheaper and families won't have to travel to Ystrad Mynach - who are the idiots in charge of all of this? Hope it happens to them one day!!

30/07/12

pinpong says...

Torys are back. Hospital beds being closed. back to the 1990s

30/07/12

real_life says...

Think you'll find that the Welsh Labour Govt decides and controls the health budget in Wales. Perhaps they should decide what is important - subsidising internal flights and a train with a first class carriage and restaurant that hardly anyone eats in, or funding beds.

30/07/12

Taffeta says...

Thing is we don't have a Welsh Labour Government - we have an elected Assembly - not the same at all! And they do indeed control the health budget in Wales - I don't think the Assembly is fit for purpose - it is populated by people who are parochial and unworldly and worse still, they are unwilling to learn from outside Wales - I'm sick of hearing 'Wales is different' so we can't use what works elsewhere - well, Wales and it's people are not different - we all want good public services - health, education and good jobs - for decades no matter who is in charge, we have had none of these at a quality we and our children deserve. Wales has a very long way to be able to survive alone - it can't compete and look after it's own even now.

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