Local MP, David Rutley, has welcomed progress towards delivering new facilities to keep important inpatient mental health beds for adults and older people in Macclesfield, having campaigned on this vital issue for many months.
David is pleased to have received confirmation that preparatory building works are due to start this month on renovating Lime Walk House in Macclesfield, which will become the new inpatient unit for adults and older people experiencing serious mental health challenges. The project will be funded with £2 million of capital investment to extend and modernise facilities on-site, which will include a gymnasium and sensory garden. All rooms will be en-suite and located on a single level, for patients' ease of access to other facilities.
In addition, the Complex Assessment and Recovery Service (CARS) Ward at Macclesfield District General Hospital is shortly to transfer to the ownership to Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Trust (the local mental health service provider), to enable £2.5 million of capital investment to begin on transforming the ward into the new unit for dementia patients, which will link in with a new dementia outreach service, to support more people to live in their own homes.
Under plans announced last year by NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS South Cheshire CCG, NHS Vale Royal CCG and CWP, 15 mental health beds would be set aside for older patients with more complex conditions, such as dementia, at the CARS site at Macclesfield District General Hospital, with a further 26 beds allocated for impatient use by other adults at Lime Walk House. There will also be up to 6 local short stay crisis beds in the wider community. These plans replaced earlier proposals - opposed by David, other local MPs, and East Cheshire Mental Health Forum - that would have transferred the majority of remaining adult mental health beds in north-east Cheshire to the Bowmere Hospital in Chester. David said this would have presented unacceptable travel times for local patients, carers and families.
Commenting on the recent announcement, David said, "It is positive to get confirmation that progress is being made to deliver these important new facilities in our community. These beds will ensure that local adults and older people experiencing mental health challenges can continue to receive the treatment that they need close to their homes and families. I will continue to keep close to these important developments as progress is made in the months ahead."
