SALISBURY’s mental health facility for people in crisis could stay open after a U-turn from the NHS Trust that runs it.
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Trust announced earlier this month that Salisbury’s place of safety, in Fountain Way psychiatric hospital, would be transferred to Devizes – leaving patients to travel 45 minutes.
It followed a public consultation and came in spite of opposition from bosses at Salisbury District Hospital, who feared it would pile pressure on A&E.
But last Wednesday the Trust issued a statement saying further consultation would take place.
It said: “Following an extensive consultation on improving the provision and quality of places of safety suites, we recently published a paper on the consultation outcome. Since then the Trust has noted a number of concerns raised and decided to review further comments from stakeholders.”
The Trust’s Board will formally consider the consultation outcome at their next meeting, on September 27, and will announce a conclusion “shortly afterwards”.
The Trust said places of safety suites in Salisbury, Swindon and Devizes would continue to operate in the meantime, providing a safe environment for one person detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act for 72 hours.
Commenting on Facebook, Laura Kitchen said: “Trust me, if any of you actually saw the 136 suite at Fountain Way you would see this as a good thing. I work at Fountain Way and the current 136 is not really fit for purpose plus it also means that my ward gets the space back so essentially my service users benefit.”
But Tracy Adlam said: “The people who made this decision should take a long hard look at themselves and then hang their heads in shame.”
Article originally appeared on Salisbury Journal
