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Councillors fighting to save Sittingbourne's Frank Lloyd dementia unit have won a short reprieve.
Health bosses had been hoping to have its closure at the end of this month signed off at County Hall, Maidstone, this morning (Thursday).
But county councillor Andrew Bowles (Con, Swale East) tabled a last-ditch motion at the Kent Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Hosc) to refer the proposal to health minister Matt Hancock.
He was seconded by Cllr John Wright (Con, Sittingbourne South) and backed by Cllr Ken Pugh (Con, Sheppey). Members passed it unanimously.
Health chiefs led by Adam Wickings, the chief operating officer at NHS West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), must now return to County Hall on Wednesday, April 29, to explain their business case before councillors can send the matter to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Members heard the purpose-built unit in the grounds of Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital had been set up as a twin-ward 40-bed facility for violent and dangerous dementia patients with "challenging and complex needs" but was now standing empty.
Mr Wickings, a former philosophy university lecturer, insisted: "In our view, we have not closed the unit. It just happens to be empty. We have not sought to close it. It is still available for referrals."
Cllr Bowles commented: "There is more than one way of closing a unit. If you don't send anyone there it will end up being mothballed."
He added: "There is a danger that bureaucrats in suits see the cost of everything and the value of nothing. If we don't use our powers to send this to the Secretary State then, quite frankly, we are all wasting our time."
Cllr Wright, who is also a governor at Medway Maritime Hospital, said: "At my last meeting there on January 31, I heard of a woman with dementia who was medically fit to be discharged but nurses had been waiting three weeks to find her a place because no care homes would accept her.
"Yet we have the purpose-built Frank Lloyd unit standing empty."
He said both he and the Swale Mental Health Action Group had been kept in the dark by health bosses despite repeated requests for imformation.
Cllr Ken Pugh said he knew of a woman with dementia who had been returned to her own home and then stabbed her husband.
He said: "Some people need to be kept in a secure unit. We can't pretend they don't exist and sweep them under the carpet."
Councillors agreed to refer the proposal to the Secretary of State on four grounds:
1. Premature as no alternatives identified;
2. Inadequate consultation;
3. No evidence it is in the best interest of patients and
4. Valuable and experienced staff will be lost.
A spokesman for Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) which runs the unit said today: "We are very proud of the staff who have worked hard at the Frank Lloyd Unit in Sittingbourne to deliver personalised, quality care to patients and support to their families during their time on the unit.
"Over the past 18 months, we have seen a reduction in referrals from the clinical commissioning groups continuing health care assessment teams as alternative care placements have been utilised.
"The clinical commissioning groups are currently developing a new care model for people living with complex dementia across Kent and Medway.
"Since the clinical commissioning groups advised patients and their families of the changes to the care available we have worked closely with our patients and their families at the Frank Lloyd Unit, whilst continuing to provide a high level of care, until appropriate longer term residential placements have been identified.
"All our specialist staff from the Frank Lloyd Unit are highly valued and continue to be employed in other parts of the trust where they can best use their skills whilst we await further guidance from the CCG about their new care model developments."
Read: Essential Frank Lloyd Dementia Unit background information here.
