Local MP, David Rutley, is continuing to campaign alongside local residents and service users to keep much-needed mental health beds for acute adult inpatient care in Macclesfield, following the end of the public consultation on the future of local metal health services.
David submitted a strong response to the consultation, setting out his clear opposition to the removal of all remaining acute adult inpatient beds from Cheshire East to Chester. He continues to work with local MPs, Fiona Bruce and Esther McVey, to urge local healthcare stakeholders to fully consider the widely-held concerns across communities in north-east Cheshire, and to bring forward further proposals that would ensure that essential adult mental health beds are retained in Macclesfield, where they are needed most. The MPs will also go on raising these vital issues with Government Ministers.
The public consultation on the proposed redesign of specialist adult older people’s mental health services was open for a total of twelve weeks. It set out a preferred consultation option that would see the closure of the well-respected Millbrook Unit in Macclesfield and the transfer of the last remaining adult inpatient care beds to an expanded facility at Bowmere Hospital in Chester. This would mean many patients in north-east Cheshire would have to travel over 40 miles to get to their nearest acute mental health wards.
David is pleased that so many local residents, as well as local Parish Councils and community groups, made submissions to the consultation, and expressed their concerns in other ways. Over 3,100 people have signed an online petition started by East Cheshire Mental Health Forum, the local and well-respected mental health service user advocacy group, and many others made their concerns known at several public consultation meetings held in Macclesfield during the consultation period. David attended the meeting held at Macclesfield Town Football Club on 3rd May.
David said, “It is clear that there are strongly-held concerns across local communities about the proposals to remove important adult inpatient care beds from Macclesfield to Chester. I am grateful that so many local residents have taken the time to make their views known to local healthcare leaders through the consultation and public meetings. I am continuing to raise their concerns with Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Trust and Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group and will go on campaigning to keep vital adult mental health beds in Macclesfield.”