Hospital Set For Mental Health Beds

A decision on where to locate beds for elderly people with mental health problems in Wiltshire will be made next month. Wiltshire Primary Care Trust was due to decide on its preferred location for 20-25 beds at its board meeting in April but has deferred the decision to next month.

Nicholas Gillard, interim director of planning and partnerships at the PCT, said there was nothing sinister in the delay. “The work has taken longer than we had planned and it’s important that we are thorough to be clear about the model of service and how we more forward. We need an additional period of time to come back with recommendations in May,” he said.

He said the PCT’s preferred option was for the beds to be located in a single site at Melksham Hospital. The Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust that runs mental health services has not decided on its preferred location of the beds.

Malcolm Sinclair, chief operating officer, said: “AWP’s priority is getting the overall model of care right. That means developing a more community based model of care where we work closely with social services, other social care providers and the PCT’s new neighbourhood teams.

“We need to get the correct balance between community based care and specialist mental health beds. Many older people with mental health problems may also have physical health problems.We need to make sure that our inpatients have good access to diagnostic services and treatment offered by our colleagues in mainstream health services too.”