The Ridgewood Centre in Frimley.
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Patients face longer journey times
By Pete CastleApril 06, 2009
Patients will face round journey times of up to six-and-a-half hours if plans to close the area’s only psychiatric hospital get the go-ahead, according to a report.
Surrey and Borders Partnership, the NHS trust responsible for mental health care in the area, wants to close the Ridgewood Centre in Frimley, a 33-bed hospital where people needing overnight treatment are cared for.
It is part of the trust’s proposal to reduce inpatient mental heath services from ten sites across Surrey to just three - in Guildford, Chertsey and Redhill.
A consultation on the proposals ended last Tuesday.
The changes will mean that people from Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, Camberley, Yateley and the surrounding areas will face longer and more expensive journeys to receive care or visit relatives.
The proposals have been criticised by a panel scrutinising the changes on behalf of people living in Aldershot and Farnborough.
Questions have also been raised by Rushmoor's chief executive Andrew Lloyd and Rushmoor councillor Mike Roberts.
In a letter to the chief executive of the Surrey and Borders NHS Trust last week, Mr Lloyd said there were still “significant issues” that had not been addressed by the trust.
The council was worried about the lack of links between civilian and Army mental health care, the time taken to travel to the new hospitals and the treatment of mentally ill people admitted to Frimley Park Hospital, the letter said.
Rushmoor Labour councillor Mike Roberts, a member of the committee that helped to draft the letter, said the findings of the trust’s transport assessment showed the problems that people in this area would face when trying to access mental health services.
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