Scottish mental health ward forced to close due to 'increase in violence'
There are now serious concerns for the safety of clinical staff, as well as patients.
Staff retention has been an ongoing issue in recent times, and recruitment of new learning disability nursing staff has been extremely challenging – a problem being faced by health and social care services nationally.
READ MORE: Bòrd na Gàidhlig announces funding for 27 Gaelic officers as scheme reopens
Staff in Ward 7A are highly-skilled and trained learning disability specialists and deliver high quality care. There are significant gaps in the core workforce, which impacts on continuity of care.
Ward 7A is an acute inpatient assessment and treatment ward for patients with learning disabilities and complex mental health needs.
This is one discreet ward within Woodland View, and the closure does not impact on any others.
For several years, the service has been experiencing significant challenges, including delays in discharges for patients to move to more appropriate community settings once their need for hospital provision has ended – an issue compounded by national shortages in the capacity, availability and variety of community-based care options for individuals with complex support needs.
READ MORE: Plans to install mobile masts across rural Scotland massively scaled back
More recently, there have been escalating concerns around the physical environment of the ward, as well as significant problems with recruiting and retaining staff.
Despite a focused and intensive effort by NAHSCP's dedicated and committed staff teams, the challenges in Ward 7A have not been able to be addressed and it is no longer suitable for patients to remain there.
Therefore, due to clinical and care risks, the extremely difficult decision has been taken to close the ward by July 14.
There have been no admissions since late 2024, with six inpatients on the ward. These patients no longer require medical input and treatment, and as such are not being cared for in the most appropriate place to meet their health and care needs. A number of patients are from Ayrshire, while others require to be discharged back home to their own local authority areas.
In alignment with the Scottish Government's Coming Home report recommendations, NAHSCP say they are committed to ensuring that people only remain in hospital for as long as they require assessment and treatment.
Discussions are ongoing with inpatients, their guardians, staff and other healthcare professionals to make sure robust discharge plans are in place and implemented and no patients will be discharged without appropriate care and support being in place.
Due to the nature of the service, which should provide a short term assessment and treatment input for individuals with learning disabilities, the physical layout of Ward 7A was not designed for longer-term stays.
The ward environment was never intended to deliver continuing care and has become increasingly unsuitable for both patients and staff, with limited space to carry out therapeutic interventions and facilitate visitors without causing disruption to other patients.
Patients in Ward 7A have a variety of complex needs. To ensure the highest standard of care, it is crucial that this is provided by staff who fully understand the needs of each individual patient. Using agency staff is not a sustainable solution.
NAHSCP are committed to reviewing the model of care for learning disability assessment and treatment services in alignment with the national Coming Home ambitions. The organisation has pro-actively developed a number of local service models to support the needs for complex community support.
Caroline Cameron (above), director of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: 'The decision to close Ward 7A was not taken lightly and comes after a sustained effort to improve the situation. However the challenges we have faced mean this has unfortunately not been possible, and we believe that closing the ward is the right thing to do in terms of the welfare of our patients and staff.
'We fully appreciate that this challenging time-frame requires discharge plans to be accelerated, and that this is a very unsettling time for our patients, their families and our staff. We would like to offer our assurance that their safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us.
'I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the staff at Ward 7A, who have been doing an incredible job in increasingly difficult circumstances.'
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