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BBC<\/p>\nLucy Adams<\/p>\n
Social Affairs Correspondent<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
Fraser Malcolm has a learning disability and limited speech<\/p>\n
A secure hospital ward for people with complex learning disabilities is to be closed within two weeks, leaving families struggling to arrange suitable care for vulnerable patients, the BBC has learned.<\/p>\n
The ward at Woodland View Hospital, in Ayrshire, is to shut on 14 July after health chiefs said it had “fallen short of our standards and expectations”.<\/p>\n
Experts told the BBC it was “nonsensical” to close a ward at such short notice and hospital transitions of this kind usually take a minimum of three to six months.<\/p>\n
Andrew Malcolm, who has fought to get his 21-year-old son Fraser out of the hospital for four years, said it was not possible to get a suitable care package in place so quickly.<\/p>\n
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Fraser used to help his dad renovate a sailing boat<\/p>\n
“None of the care providers can react in that time, it’s not safe, it is not ethical,” he said.<\/p>\n
Woodland View, near Irvine, is a 206-bedroom mental health facility and community hospital which was built in 2016.<\/p>\n
Ward 7A is an eight-bed unit that provides assessment and treatment for patients who have complex health care needs, often associated with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.<\/p>\n
Fraser, from West Kilbride in North Ayrshire, is one of six patients who will have to leave the ward when it closes on 14 July.<\/p>\n
He went into the unit in 2021 for a 12-week assessment because he was struggling to regulate his behaviour.<\/p>\n
His parents have been trying to get him out of the hospital and into suitable care since.<\/p>\n
Doctors said he was ready to leave the ward three years ago but no package of support was agreed.<\/p>\n
His parents have now received a letter from the health board telling them the ward will close within weeks.<\/p>\n
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Fraser, now 21, has been in the hospital for four years<\/p>\n
Caroline Cameron, director of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said the ward was an increasingly unsuitable physical environment and there had been “incidences of violence and aggression”.<\/p>\n
She said they had struggled to recruit and retain staff and there had been challenges moving patients out to more appropriate community settings.<\/p>\n
“Despite a focused and intensive support over a period of time, the challenges in Ward 7A have not improved and it is no longer suitable for patients to remain there,” she said. <\/p>\n
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Fraser with parents Andrew and Karen<\/p>\n
Fraser has limited speech and complex needs but his parents says that before he went into hospital he lived a full life.<\/p>\n
He attended a special school, regularly went sailing and on holiday with his family and was helping his dad renovate a sailing boat.<\/p>\n
His mother Karen said: “People go into hospital to get made better, not worse – and Fraser’s so much worse now than he was when he went in there.”<\/p>\n
His parents have raised a number of safety concerns about his care. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year Fraser was hospitalised after swallowing the handle of a spoon.<\/p>\n
However, his dad Andrew told BBC Scotland that complex cases like Fraser’s need a proper transition plan. <\/p>\n
He said: “You can’t have somebody locked in hospital who’s now de-skilled, profoundly deaf, non-verbal, and just told they are free to go home.”<\/p>\n
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His parents says that before he went into hospital Fraser lived a full life.<\/p>\n
Consultant clinical psychologist Prof Andy McDonnell told the BBC the proposal to move Fraser with four weeks’ notice was “nonsensical”.<\/p>\n
He said a plan to put him with agency workers until a care team can be recruited was “insane” because to a patient they are just “a bunch of strangers”.<\/p>\n
Prof McDonnell, who is a director of Studio Three, a company which specialises in transitioning people with complex needs out of hospital, said the proposals on offer for Fraser had all the hallmarks of a “botched transition”, with a high likelihood of people getting injured.<\/p>\n
He said transitioning people with autism, who are often suffering from complex trauma or PTSD as well, needed to be very carefully planned.<\/p>\n
“In my experience, the first year can be quite rocky for a lot of people,” Prof McDonnell said.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Claire Currie, who represents the Malcolm family, said the timeframe for the ward closure was “unprecedented”.<\/p>\n
She said: “I am aware that some of the patients have not left the ward in months, if not years. <\/p>\n
“Sadly, they consider that environment their home.<\/p>\n
“I am very concerned for any individuals who may be suddenly moved without transition planning or proper preparation.” <\/p>\n
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Fraser’s parents have raised a number of safety concerns about his care<\/p>\n
In early 2022 ministers pledged that by March 2024 significantly fewer people with learning disabilities will be stuck far from home or in hospitals. A pledge they didn’t meet.<\/p>\n