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NHS Consultation Process for New Mental Hospital 2007

This content is maintained as background information. LCT was heavily criticised by a Task Group set up by the Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee for the way in which this "consultation" was managed.

A new consultation process for interim measures is running during the summer of 2009. See Plan page.

A public meeting was held by the NHS on 7th November 2007, and although advertised in the Lancaster Guardian, we believe was attended largely by health professionals. The purpose of the public meeting was to determine the best site for the mental unit.

None of the residents spotted the advert and even if we had, we don't believe it would have alerted us to the fact that the meeting was to discuss the location of a mental unit behind our homes.

Despite being obvious stakeholders as members of the local community at no time has the NHS informed us about their proposals.

The proposed sites presented at the public meeting were:

• Ridge Lea – located close to the former Moor Hospital and currently the provider of mental health services.
• Royal Albert Fields - The slope directly behind Royal Albert and De Vitre cottages on Ashton Road
• Wyresdale Road –opposite side of road to the cattle market
• South Lancaster -  on A6, rhs,  approx 500m north of Galgate

According to a report in the Lancaster Guardian on 11 January 2008, only the Royal Albert site has been discussed with Planning officials.

Participants at the public meeting were invited to vote for their preferred site based on the following criteria:

• Is the site accessible to other NHS services?
• Does the site have access to local services?
• Does the site have good public transport links?
• Is the traveling distance from other Lancashire services acceptable?
• Is there enough outdoor space on the site?
• Is the site in a low crime area?
• Does the site have space/flexibility for expansion?

We believe - and this has been confirmed by health professionals who have discussed this with us - that some of this criteria is irrelevant to the choice of these particular sites.