Serious concerns raised over Insch Hospital strategic survey
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Community group The Friends of Insch Hospital have raised serious concerns over the Strategic Needs Assessment being carried out by Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AH&SCP) after being given less than 24 hours to respond to the draft copy.
They also raised further concerns over the nature of the questions being proposed and the wording used in relation to Insch War Memorial Hospital.
Vice chair of the group Alison Grant explained: "As has been previously reported, Insch War Memorial hospital was temporarily shut last year because of Covid-19.
"The Friends of Insch Hospital were then advised that the hospital was to be mothballed as AH&SCP deemed it to be unsafe.
"We are now being told by AH&SCP that the hospital will remain temporarily closed and cannot reopen until a Strategic Needs Assessment is carried out which will determine the health and social care needs of the community.
"As part of this assessment a questionnaire was produced by AH&SCP and the community was asked to register in order to take part in the survey.
"The Friends of Insch Hospital wish to say a huge thank you to residents for their fantastic response to the registration requirement to take part in the engagement survey.
"Over 1000 people signed up which is an amazing endorsement of the huge concern this community has over the closure of the hospital."
But she continued: "The Friends were shown a draft copy of the survey last Wednesday, July 21 and were given less than 24 hours to give our feedback.
"Despite this, the Friends provided very detailed concerns and suggested amendments and requested an urgent meeting with AH&SCP to discuss these.
"This request was ignored and very few of our comments were taken on board.
"A week later, AH&SCP sent a link to their online survey to those who had registered online and hard copies were also sent out by post."
The Integration Joint Board has endorsed and welcomed AH&SCP decision to review Health and Social Care services in the Insch and surrounding area, seeing it as an exciting opportunity to develop services according to local need.
However, the survey which is a key part of a consultation that will decide the future of Insch War Memorial Hospital mentions the currently closed hospital only once, and asks no direct question about its future.
She continued: "Many questions within the survey focus on the priorities in the AH&SCP Strategic plan and are impossible for members of the public to answer as they simply would not be aware of or have access to the information which would enable them to answer.
"Respondents can choose to respond 'strongly agree' through to 'strongly disagree' .
"The following are examples from the survey:
"The people who care for me feel supported in their role.
"I am aware of and can access support and information within my community to meet my needs.
"Support and services are available to me close to home.
"Since receiving their surveys, many residents have contacted the Friends with comments such as: The survey is just very disappointing and I didn’t feel I could complete it, 'We do not understand how to answer the questions', 'The questions don't make sense'.
"In the main survey document only two questions mention Insch, asking if respondents live there and what services they have used over the past three years.
"These include some of the services that were provided by the hospital, but which have been unavailable locally because of its closure for almost half that period.
"Another question asks about local “additional services/groups” used to “support your physical and mental health and wellbeing”, some of which, such as the Bennachie Leisure Centre in Insch, have been closed for a similar length of time due to the pandemic.
"Overall, the questionnaire makes little reference to the future use of Insch Memorial Hospital which remains empty of any inpatients since March 2020 and up to that point played a fundamental and vital role in meeting the health care needs of many throughout rural Aberdeenshire, over its 99 year history.
"Aboyne, Glen O’ Dee at Banchory and Turriff hospitals were also closed because of the pandemic but have subsequently reopened, with a similar consultation now proposed to decide the future of the Deeside facility."
She said: "Given that the Friends are being contacted by residents who are having difficulty completing the survey we are offering to support people and will be holding drop in sessions as well as offering telephone help and posting advice on social media.
"The first of these sessions will be on Thursday, August 12 outside the hospital from 5pm to 7pm and Saturday, August 14 at the former Bakehoose from 9am to 1pm.
"Please email the Friends if you require further information about the drop ins via info@friendsofinschhospital.org .
"There will also be posters throughout the village.
"For anyone that wishes to voice their concerns over the questionnaire you can email inschhsc@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
The closing date for responding to the survey, either in paper form or online is August 29."
