AQW 12623/22-27


Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast


Tabled Date: 28/05/2024
Answered On Date: 11/06/2024
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health (i) whether there will be specialist treatment and assessment beds available for those with a learning disability before the proposed closure of Muckamore Abbey Hospital goes ahead; and (ii) whether this will impact the date of the proposed closure.


Answer:
Outside of Muckamore Abbey Hospital there are several commissioned specialist beds to provide inpatient assessment and treatment for adults with learning disabilities. However, it is recognised that additional beds are required to meet current levels of need and work is underway to ensure the availability of localised assessment and treatment beds in each Trust.
A Regional Resettlement Oversight Board has been established to monitor resettlement and maintain momentum. This also aims to improve the availability of the specialist beds in Northern Ireland.
It is further recognised that specialist community assessment and treatment services need to be expanded to improve mental health outcomes for this population and reduce the level of need for inpatient services. To that end, my Department is finalising a service model for learning disability which aims to provide a regionally consistent service that better responds to need at an earlier stage in the community.
A draft model has been developed and shared with the sector for feedback. Work is already underway to develop a costed implementation plan and my officials are engaging more widely with relevant stakeholders in anticipation of a public consultation.
The closure of the hospital is dependent on all the remaining in-patients being successfully resettled to new homes in the community. The most recent assessment from the Regional Resettlement Oversight Board is that not all of the patients remaining in the hospital will be resettled before the end of June. In light of this, I announced on 5 June a short extension to the timeframe for the closure of the Hospital.
The safety and well-being of the remaining patients is of paramount importance to me, and I am determined that each of the remaining patients is afforded the necessary time to enable them to successfully transition to their new homes. The resettlement process, particularly for those patients who have spent a considerable part of their lives in Muckamore, can be complex and any attempt to rush this work risks the breakdown of individual community placements. I know such breakdowns can be a difficult and traumatic experience for patients and for their families.
In recognition of this, I have decided that setting a further deadline at this point for the hospital’s closure is not helpful, but I want to make very clear that this does not mean there is any change to the policy position, which remains that no-one should be required to live in a hospital.