McLeod to raise Darataigh concerns with NHS Dumfries & Galloway

> McLeod to raise Darataigh concerns with NHS Dumfries & Galloway
>
> SNP MSP for the South of Scotland Aileen McLeod has today (Friday) said she will raise concerns about the announcement by NHS Dumfries & Galloway of the closure of the Darataigh Unit in Stranraer with NHS managers as a matter of urgency.
>
> Aileen said:
>
> “I have already been approached by constituents who are concerned about this announcement and what it may mean for the future. I recognise that NHS Dumfries & Galloway wishes to increase levels of care at home or in a homely setting and for many people this will be exactly what they need.
>
> “However, even radically increased provision of care at home will not suit every patient and there will still be patients with dementia, for example, whose needs are beyond what can be accommodated in their own homes. NHS Dumfries & Galloway themselves say they expect demand for those more complex and specialist services to continue.
>
> “The big concern, of course, is that this will mean some patients with particularly complex or aggressively deteriorating dementia being cared for in Dumfries. NHS Dumfries & Galloway has said that it wishes to expand the range of services available at the Galloway Community Hospital and Newton Stewart Hospital, which is very welcome, but clearly won’t happen overnight.
>
> “I am also concerned that in the short term this decision actually reverses a trend over recent years to provide more complicated treatment such as dialysis and chemotherapy in Stranraer, when it is clinically safe to do so, rather requiring patients to travel to Dumfries.
>
> “I agree with a lot of what NHS Dumfries & Galloway is trying to do here but also I recognise and sympathise with the concerns being expressed about provision of treatment for very vulnerable patients so far away from their families and I will be raising these issues with NHS Dumfries & Galloway as a matter of urgency.”
>