Mill Lodge care home in Huntington set to close

8:33am Friday 14th September 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Richard Catton, richard.catton@thepress.co.uk

A MENTAL health care home for the elderly is set to close to patients as part of a major change in the way such services are delivered in York.

Mill Lodge Community Unit for the Elderly (CUE) would be “vacated” under plans by Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Trust, and the focus shifted to reducing the number of people moving from their own homes or other care units.

Staff at the Huntington Road site would be redeployed to one of the trust’s three other homes in York, or would become part of a planned Nursing Home Team, whose job would be to lend specialist mental health care to regular nursing staff at other locations.

The team would also work to reduce the number of admissions by “releasing resource currently committed to inpatient facilities and reinvest in community based services”.

The trust is now set to launch a month long public consultation on the plan. However, members of City of York Council ’s Health Scrutiny committee have asked trust bosses to report to them in two months, amid concerns over the future of in-patients currently at Mill Lodge.

Tina Funnell, chairman of the committee, said: “We need definite evidence that there would be provision for these people. There needs to be a significant consultation.”

According to a report which went before the Scrutiny Committee this week, the partnership hopes the changes will reduce delayed discharges, or so-called “bed blocking”, where patients are left waiting to transfer from hospital care, such as that provided at Mill Lodge, to community or residential care.

The report said: “There will be fewer occasions when a vulnerable older person is required to move from their home to hospital, or between homes.

“This will improve health outcomes for those individuals and reduce their distress and that of their carers. “

It said: “In order to achieve this service improvement, we therefore propose to reconfigure the current inpatient community units. This will allow us to vacate Mill Lodge Community Unit for the Elderly, therefore inpatient services for older people will be consolidated into the remaining units: Meadowfields, Worsley Court and Peppermill Court.”

Comments(12)

MegaDad says...
9:09am Fri 14 Sep 12

What they actually mean is "CUT" care to the patients and let them rot at home where nobody can see them or think about them, most of the patients can simply just not manage at home, in any shape of form.

It would also be a very good idea from the idiots in Leeds to tell the staff who actually work there, this is the plan. My wife works there and only found out this morning by reading your paper. This is a total disgrace by people in Leeds who totally have no idea of the great and difficult job the staff do at Mill Lodge.

If I had my way, I would shoot the lot of Leeds NHS trust, who should not even be involved in matters in York.

Why dont they still to destroying there own NHS section and leave ours alone. Set of total idiots.

Paul Leadley

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Jiffy says...
9:14am Fri 14 Sep 12

Having gone through personal experience of this, surely the whole point of them being in this kind of residency is that they are no longer safe to be left in their own homes and need the continuity of care that they can only receive in this kind of environment.

With the numbers of people needing this kind of facility increasing I feel that this is very shortsighted and will result in more stress and health issues for all of the families involved.

None of the individuals proposing this can have experienced a loved one suffering with dementia as if they had they would not even be considering this as an option.

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MegaDad says...
9:20am Fri 14 Sep 12

Jiffy wrote:
Having gone through personal experience of this, surely the whole point of them being in this kind of residency is that they are no longer safe to be left in their own homes and need the continuity of care that they can only receive in this kind of environment.

With the numbers of people needing this kind of facility increasing I feel that this is very shortsighted and will result in more stress and health issues for all of the families involved.

None of the individuals proposing this can have experienced a loved one suffering with dementia as if they had they would not even be considering this as an option.
Very well said Jiffy.

Shortsighted, blinkered, Blind are only a few words but sum up the proposal.

The last thing on there mind is the welfare of the patients.

Due to the condition of some of the patients, they can have violent outbursts, how would they contol these if they were at home, with little or no support care!!!

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ReginaldBiscuit says...
9:37am Fri 14 Sep 12

I fully agree with the other comments. As always, whenever there's a recession or things get tough, the poor and the vulnerable become worse off.

Great Britain (the very definition of which is murky and undefined - go to Scotland and you receive better health care and still don't have to pay for your education. Scandalous), is gently winding down and cutting responsibilities for the welfare state and care. Sadly, I can only see a future with a heavily fragmented and cut-down NHS. A future where families return to taking care of themselves and their own.

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Zetkin says...
10:56am Fri 14 Sep 12

Government policy is, as ever, don't care in the community.

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Dr Brian says...
5:31pm Fri 14 Sep 12

They closed a similar Community Unit for the Elderly in Acomb a few years ago and said they were going to do more community nursing - a friend who worked there said about 40 staff left and 2 new posts were created to deal with community issues.

In recent months a similar unit was closed at Cherry Tree House Tang Hall that had day care facilities and the patients were transferred to Mill Lodge - It seems the day care patients will move on again. Or will they - will there be any provision for them to have day facilities anywhere else?

This is merely a cost cutting exercise however they try to dress it up - Mental Health services for old people are being cut in York probably to help pay for similar services in Leeds since Leeds took over control of mental health in York. Go on Press ask Leeds Trust if they are cutting services in a similar way in Leeds

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Dr Brian says...
5:35pm Fri 14 Sep 12

Oh and whilst the NHS is cutting its services to the vulnerable people of this country - overseas aid continues at massive amounts - time we looked after the people who made Britain Great and not the rest of the world - charity begins at home - except in England

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Digeorge says...
6:20pm Fri 14 Sep 12

Dr Brian looks like you will have some more work to do then in the community not that you have enough already on your plate!

Psychiatrists, it is interesting that if you are a York patient you can't get a referral to a Leeds psychiatrist despite the speciality and blame York & North Yorkshire PCT for this situation. There is an issue of patient choice and also expertise.

However if you are an LGI/St James patient there is a loop to a Liaison Psychiatrist but can't refer directly.

But on shutting elderly care wards there is the danger of elder abuse by people who are living in homes by their relatives, I have seen it today and was appalled that is 'care in the community' for you. To say 'vulnerable' was correct.

Everything is simply a cost cutting exercise and the danger is that there will be more cases like the one I described to you.

Actually Dr Brian but there are some people's homes that treat the elderly appallingly.

This recession is just creating more mental health problems just the Government 'don't get it'!

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Digeorge says...
6:56pm Fri 14 Sep 12

On a personal note to Dr Brian, I guess I owe a bit of an apology - sorry and all for the 'slam' issue but actually you did me a favour in the end and a thank you to the practice (in a slight way) :)

You were fair 'game'! It is a Friday after all!

Regards.

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Digeorge says...
7:01pm Fri 14 Sep 12

I forgot I totally agree with you on this issue!

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LindaNess says...
11:42am Thu 20 Sep 12

My mother, who suffers from alzheimers has spent time in Mill Lodge and we, her family, value the staff and their skill and dedication in looking after some of the most vulnerable of our society. The reason these people are resident in Mill Lodge is that they could not cope at home. My mother is so confused that she could not even make a glass of squash, never mind a cup of tea, snack or meal. If left on their own it is likely that they will feel isolated and more depressed.
What is Leeds health authority thinking of? Have they even personal experience of someone in the family with dementia?
As there is a population that is living for much longer, mental health issues are likely to be more prevalent. There is need for more support, not less. As my mother is self-funding, we had to find a private home for her and it took ten months to find a place as there is so little provision for dementia care, even in the private sector.

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Whitefield74 says...
8:51am Mon 24 Sep 12

It would be a huge mistake to cut back the services provided at Mill Lodge or to close the the unit. The staff do a wonderful job and the care provided is vital for those who are residents and their families and carers. I speak from experience when I say that the day care is an invaluable change of environment for those who might otherwise be unable to socialise with others or even leave their homes and can be a lifeline for carers. We need more facilities like this, not fewer.
Perhaps the Press could tell us how we can make our views felt during the 'public consultation'?

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