THERE has been outspoken opposition to the planned closure of a
Shetland hospital, with local nurses adding their voice to the protest.
Almost 200 people supported a vote of no confidence in Shetland Health
Board's proposal to close Montfield Hospital, at a public meeting in
Lerwick at the weekend.
The plan was attacked as unnecessary, outrageous and a flagrant breach
of the trust of the elderly, who had paid their taxes and national
insurance on the promise of free health care throughout their lives.
The meeting dismissed claims by the board that there was not a demand
for all the beds after hearing that one woman, almost 90 years old, had
been sent recently to a nursing home in Banchory.
She was allegedly told there were no beds available at Montfield and
was left to make her own travel arrangements.
Local nurses have said they had so far been ''loyal to the point of
naivety''. One told the meeting: ''We are actually quite scared to speak
out. We have been let down badly by our management.''
She added: ''We are going to force the people of Shetland to become
carers. Women will go back to the Middle Ages and have to become
carers.''
After the meeting, an action group was set up to campaign further to
save the hospital.
The health board has issued a consultation document on the plan.
However, no board members attended the public meeting, which was called
by Shetland Labour Party.
The local MP, Lib-Dem Jim Wallace, sent a letter of support to the
meeting. He said he would be seeking a meeting with Health Minister Lord
Fraser to express ''serious misgivings about the way community care is
being implemented, generally, as well as to relay particular local
concerns.''
The health board wants the 81-bed hospital closed by September 1997.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article