Wellbeing hub plan for Insch Hospital
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Despite the wishes of the majority of the community and the Friends of Insch Hospital group the Aberdeenshire Integration Joint Board (IJB) has agreed to further develop a wellbeing hub and clinical space at the Insch War Memorial Hospital whilst work on a business case for capital investment continues.
The hospital closed its doors back at the start of the pandemic and a review of health services in Insch was launched in May 2021.
A report to the Aberdeenshire Integration Joint Board yesterday laid out a list of potential options to its members which were agreed five votes to three and which included exploring four options for new-build facilities.
One option however would instead see inpatient capacity at Inverurie Hospital increase with a new build or extension.
This would mean no inpatient beds at Insch Hospital which has been strongly opposed by the local community.
Furthermore, officers were instructed to continue working with stakeholders to make arrangements, within existing budget provision, for alternative in-patient facilities, for the area, which it has been revealed will focus on Inverurie instead.
A Strategic Needs Assessment was completed and published earlier in the year which highlighted the top ten options which had been identified by the stakeholder groups which were involved in the process.
However the Friends of Insch Hospital raised serious concernsover the way this was carried out and the methodology used.
In particular there are serious concerns over the loss of locally available beds at the unit and the desire from the IJB to see these moved to Inverurie Hospital, meaning that there is no bed provision anywhere between Huntly and Inverurie.
It also emerged during yesterday’s meeting that the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership have only met the Scottish Government once to discuss the plans, with a meeting taking place last month during which the board was told there would be “no accelerated approach” for taking an eventual preferred option forward.
Instead, a business case would need to be submitted to the Scottish Government which would compete against other areas of Scotland for capital investment.
Chair of the Integration Joint Board, Rhona Atkinson, said: “This has been a very good piece of work and I would really like to thank officers for the work they have done.
“As an IJB we are all too aware of the increasing demographic, financial and workforce pressures that our services face and we are absolutely committed to working with local communities to ensure that we provide and commission services to meet their needs.”
Vice Chair of the Integration Joint Board, councillor Anne Stirling, said: “As my colleague has said this has been a comprehensive piece of work and the IJB’s agreement will see the development of a Wellbeing Hub at the much-loved Insch War Memorial Hospital.
"Officers will continue to develop the options with the community and stakeholder groups, but this will mean that we are able to deliver a resource for the community to use in the near future whilst we continue to the work on a business case to be presented to Scottish Government for capital funding.”
It is anticipated that the Wellbeing Hub will include space for community groups to meet and deliver wellbeing focused classes and workshops. There will also be space for secondary care clinics to be delivered meaning that people in Insch will not have to travel to access them.
This has already raised concerns from the community, who point out that with the existing Bennachie Leisure Centre, library and Insch Institute there is suitable and available provision in the town for this.
Officers will continue to work on options to deliver in-patient care in the area.
There is a dedicated webpage which includes all the updates about the development of the Strategic Needs Assessment https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/insch-strategic-needs-assessment
