MP opposes mental health move

Local MP, David Rutley, has written to over twenty local Town and Parish Councils to seek their active support in highlighting strong local concerns about proposed key changes to specialist adult and older people’s mental health services in Cheshire East being put forward by Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Trust (CWP), as its consultation enters its final month.

CWP’s preferred consultation option would see the closure of the Millbrook Unit in Macclesfield, and lead to the transfer of the last remaining adult mental health beds in Cheshire East to hospitals in Chester and the Wirral. This would mean that many patients from Macclesfield and surrounding communities would have to travel far away from their homes and families to receive the inpatient treatment they need. David continues to strongly oppose this element of the proposals and continues to call on CWP to come forward with more acceptable options to help better serve patients in north-east Cheshire who are in need of acute mental health beds close to their families.

Given the importance of this issue locally, David has asked local Town and Parish Councils to join with other local charities and residents in making representations as part of the ongoing consultation, which is open until 29th May. The consultation can be accessed online at: www.easterncheshireccg.nhs.uk/Your-Views/ccg-consultations.htm.

He is also encouraging local residents and patients to attend two consultation meetings on the proposals in Macclesfield, the first at Macclesfield Town Football Club on Thursday 3rd May, between 2.30 – 5.00 p.m., and the second, also at Macclesfield Town Football Club, on Thursday 23rd May between 6.30 – 8.30 p.m., at which they can ask questions to local health service managers and raise their concerns about the proposals.

David continues to highlight to local residents the online petition to Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, launched by East Cheshire Mental Health Forum, calling on local health leaders not to go ahead with the proposals to remove the last remaining inpatient beds from Cheshire East. The petition can be found at: www.change.org/p/dr-paul-bowen-chair-east-cheshire-ccg-address-the-serious-shortfall-in-provision-of-mental-health-services-in-cheshire-east

David said, “With a month to go until the consultation closes, it is vital that as many local residents, charities and local community groups, including our much-valued local councils, have their say on the future of adult mental health services in Cheshire East. I hope that yet more people will join the campaign to keep adult mental health beds in Macclesfield.  I will continue to work with other local MPs, Fiona Bruce and Esther McVey, who share my concerns about the current proposals, and also East Cheshire Mental Health Forum, to seek a more positive outcome for local mental health patients in the months ahead.”