Insch Hospital campaigners will make their care to new Health Secretary Michael Matheson next month as they step up their fight to see the site reopened.
Members of the community attended a packed meeting at the weekend to discuss the long-term future of the 12-bed community hospital.
It has remained closed since March 2020 due to staffing pressures at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Local health chiefs say it no longer meets modern healthcare standards and that the current building is not safe to reopen.
Along with a planned virtual meeting with the new health secretary on May 3, the group has decided to start preparing an application for judicial review.
‘Lack of consistency’
Campaigners believe there has been a “fundamental lack of consistency” from local health authorities in their decision not to reopen the site.
They say “very similar” emergency evacuation procedures and infection control issues, which relate to ward dimensions, exist at other hospitals in Aberdeenshire.
The group also claims there has been an “entirely unacceptable” lack of engagement with the local community, which health bosses dispute.
A judicial review is a court process by which a judge reviews a decision, an action or a failure to act by a public body or other decision maker.
It is only available where other effective remedies have been exhausted and where there is a legally recognised ground of challenge.
Nicola Sturgeon pledge
Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a pledge to reopen the site during the Holyrood election campaign in May 2021.
New SNP leader Humza Yousaf has been asked to fulfil the promise made by his predecessor.
Chair of Friends of Insch, Graham Matthews said: “There appears to be a fundamental lack of consistency on the part of our local health authorities in their assessments of the hospital buildings within their Aberdeenshire estate.
“What we are being told are insurmountable issues at Insch don’t seem to be a problem elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, where community hospitals continue to operate fully.”
Last year, a decision was taken to develop a so-called wellbeing hub and clinical space within the facility, which would no longer include in-patient beds.
But Friends of Insch Hospital want to see a new modular extension built on to the side of the day room and run parallel to the existing hospital building.
Alex Pirrie, interim manager at Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We have been clear and consistent with the Friends of Insch Hospital throughout this process.
“We are working hard to find an alternative community use for the site and we have sought to work with the Friends group to do this.
“We appreciate that this is not what the Friends want, however it is what is in our gift to help bring to fruition.
“We have been advised that the building does not meet fire safety and evacuation standards nor does it meet Infection Prevention and Control standards specifically around bed spacing and we cannot re-open to in-patients.
“Furthermore, Safe Staffing legislation introduced in 2021 means that we would need a larger cohort of staff to operate a community hospital ward.”
‘Fully committed’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We understand Aberdeenshire Health and Social Partnership has completed a health needs assessment and it will consult the public on four potential options.
“This will allow the Health and Social Care Partnership to identify its preferred option and set out the reasons in a business case to be sent to the Scottish Government for review.
“We are fully committed to supporting services being delivered from the Insch War Memorial Hospital and we look forward to receiving the business case in due course.”
Conversation