Closure of St Johns Hospital must be halted

10.04.16am GMT Wed 16th Jan 2008

Richmond Park MP Susan Kramer today (Tuesday 15th January) joined Vince Cable MP in a debate in Parliament to call for a halt to the planned closure of Marble Hill ward in St John's Hospital Twickenham.

The purpose-built ward cares for elderly patients with severe dementia who have challenging behaviour. Relatives of the patients led by Paul Lamplugh whose wife Diana is in the ward, have been fighting for its survival.

Susan Kramer MP commented:

"St John's is a leader in specialist care for elderly patients with severe dementia and very challenging behaviour. Instead of using drugs to sedate difficult patients it manages care in ways that allows people a quality of life they would not otherwise have."

"Richmond PCT and the Mental Health Trust are very open in saying that cost is the reason for closure. But the calculation of cost is evidently based on very distorted NHS accounting which loads all kinds of central overhead onto this NHS programme."

"The tender for alternative providers for this service fails to outline the special nature of the care required by the very extreme condition of these patients."

"Although relatives are now involved to some degree in defining the service, consultation has been very limited."

"The Department of Health is expected in the next few months to produce new standards and guidance for care of the mentally ill."

"Surely this devastating decision on the closure of St John's Marble Hill ward should be halted until that new guidance is published, especially since it is expected to promote the kind of care in which St John's excels."