Mental health chief confirms beds are to stay in the town

At a meeting with local MP, David Rutley, Ms Sheena Cumiskey, the Chief Executive of Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Trust (our local mental health services provider), confirmed that vital inpatient mental health beds for adults and older people are to stay in Macclesfield. This replaces earlier proposals to move these beds to Chester.

Under new proposals brought forward last month, local health service leaders are now planning to locate 15 beds for older patients with more complex conditions, such as dementia, at the former Complex Assessment & Recovery Services ward on the Macclesfield District General Hospital site. In addition to this, a further 26 beds would be allocated for impatient use by other adults at Lime Walk House in Macclesfield. There would also be up to six local short stay crisis beds in the wider community.

These enhanced proposals were strongly endorsed at a recent meeting of the three local Clinical Commissioning Groups on 22nd November. They replace earlier plans that would have seen the last remaining mental health beds transferred from Macclesfield’s Millbrook Unit to an expanded facility at the Bowmere Hospital in Chester, which would have seen patients and their carers in north-east Cheshire having to make a nearly eighty-mile round trip to receive the care and treatment that they need. Alongside East Cheshire Mental Health Forum and other local MPs, David actively and consistently opposed these plans.

Speaking after his meeting, David said, “I am grateful to Ms Cumiskey for confirming that much-needed inpatient mental health beds for adults are to stay in Macclesfield, where they belong. I hope that this provides local patients, and their families and carers, with reassurancethat they will be able to receive the treatment that they need closer to their homes and local communities. I look forward to continuing to work with local health