A public meeting is to be held in the middle of this week in a bid to save Insch Hospital from permanent closure.
Hosted by Harriet Cross MP alongside Friends of Insch Hospital and Bennachie Community Council, residents have been urged to come together to “make their voices heard” at the event.
Members of the Integration Joint Board, made up of Aberdeenshire Council and NHS Grampian, have also been asked to attend the meeting, which takes place at Insch Church Hall on Wednesday.
The outcomes of the meeting will also be presented to Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AHSCP), which declined the invitation to be at the event, stating any feedback must be “accessible, consistently recorded and able to inform the Integrated Impact Assessment”.
The 11-bed health facility closed its doors due to staffing pressures at the start of the pandemic.
But six years on, it has yet to fully reopen and decisions are still to be made over its long-term future.
AHSCP is looking to declare the building surplus to requirements and has launched a consultation seeking views on the impact this would have on individuals, families and the wider community.
The consultation closes on July 31, before its findings are presented to a meeting of the IJB in September, where it’s hoped members of the community will also be given the chance to speak.
Ahead of Wednesday’s public meeting, Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross said: “For a century, the hospital provided vital services to residents, but like many rural areas, Insch has had this taken away from them, requiring travel to other hospitals many miles away.
“The situation is totally unacceptable, which is why we cannot allow this erosion of local healthcare to continue.
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“This public meeting is an opportunity for people to come together before the AHSCP consultation closes to underline why this vital community asset must not close permanently.
“That is why I encourage everyone, including Aberdeenshire Council and NHS Grampian, to attend so we can come up with ways on how Insch Hospital can be saved.
“As a hospital built as a memorial to those who gave their lives in the First World War, we must fight against this closure to the very end.”
