‘Appalling’ Care Inspectorate Report for Sutherland

I am deeply concerned for the vulnerable residents of Sutherland who receive a service from the Care at Home Service based out of the Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie. The Care Inspectorate has served NHS Highland with an improvement notice citing several areas of concern and have applied a deadline of May 25th for NHS Highland to come back to them with proof of the actions they have taken to address these.
I am appalled that the level of service has been allowed to reduce to the situation we now find ourselves in. I have been working with the leaders of the Highland Community Hub Framework in the north of Highland supporting them to raise their concerns to NHS Highland, but this has been to no avail.

The Hubs have been desperately asking to be taken seriously as partners in providing care and to be fully included in planning for the future. This has not happened. Services in Sutherland have been systematically reduced since 2010 with care homes and care at home services being closed and not replaced.

I also believe NHS Highland must now deliver on the aims of the North Coast redesign that was launched 10 years ago but the North has yet to see any discernible improvement. The Health and Wellbeing Hubs have been made promise after promise that they would receive properly funded contracts to provide the care they are best placed to deliver, yet here we are with them still waiting and with several having to draw on their own cash reserves to continue day to day. This is unacceptable and after 10 years of waiting to be told another 6-month review is to be undertaken is offensive.

The Care Inspectorate report confirms the current system is unsustainable and unsafe. The people involved in delivering the care locally deserve respect for their commitment to work with NHS Highland, I believe there is a solution to this crisis, and make no mistake it is a crisis that must be fixed by the end of next month and that will only be achieved if the Health and Wellbeing Hubs are fully involved in designing the future shape of the service and it is properly funded via a fair contract.

Link to the Care Inspectorate Report here -IN1 – Improvement Notice – Sutherland Care at Home Service_Redacted.pdf