A nurse of more than 40 years experience has added her voice to demands for Newton Stewart and Kirkcudbright hospitals to be reopened.
Shona Todd, who retired last year, wants the health board to bring both back into use urgently to improve health outcomes. Transferring frail elderly patients to distant DGRI or Galloway Community Hospital for routine treatments, she claims, often leads to a decline in their condition.
Mrs Todd, from Carty, Newton Stewart, was a nurse practitioner at a GP practice for 18 years and a staff nurse in health visiting before she retired.
She told the News: “Holistic support for patients could be offered now if beds were opened up at our local hospitals to offer short term care – for example if someone at home or in a care home becomes unwell with a urine infection, is dehydrated, doesn’t respond to oral antibiotics and needs intravenous antibiotics. “Currently these elderly patients will be transferred to Dumfries or Stranraer for treatment.
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