Hospital campaigners are demanding an urgent summit with health board chiefs following a packed public meeting in Newton Stewart on Saturday.
More than 200 people attended the Riverside Centre to hear a series of speakers call for the town’s hospital to be reopened.
A convoy of tractors – one towing a hospital bed and “patient” – joined the protest after making the 18-mile trip from Whithorn.
Event co-organiser and retired GP Angela Armstrong said: “It was a really successful meeting. The public certainly made their feelings clear regarding their love for Newton Stewart Hospital and their desire to see it open again.”
And, in a letter to regional NHS chief executive Jeff Ace on behalf of League of Friends of Newton Stewart Hospital, Councillor Willie Scobie insisted that the turnout “demonstrated the strength of feeling” on the issue.
He said: “There were many passionate and personal contributions made by individuals who have or are going through trauma in their own lives.
“They wanted to put why they feel the Newton Stewart Hospital could make a valuable contribution to health and social care.
“But they were extremely disappointed and even more angry that no one from the health bodies attended the public meeting.
“Refusal to meet or attend the public meeting when health bodies are agreeing a strategy of participation and engagement came over as being hypocritical of those health bodies.
“The meeting concluded that we demand that you and/or the health board meet with the friends of Newton Stewart Hospital in the first instance and thereafter attend a public meeting in Newton Stewart to lay out what plans the health board has for Newton Stewart Cottage Hospital.”
A Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “At present, Newton Stewart Cottage Hospital is being used as a vaccination hub and the ward staff of the hospital are working with our community teams to try to help fill some of the capacity gap in care at home services.
“Our key problem as a region is not numbers of hospital beds but our ability to discharge medically fit people who need some support to carry on living in their homes.
“This autumn and winter we are regularly seeing more than 100 people in hospital beds – the equivalent of more than three wards at DGRI – who simply need some help with some tasks at home to be able to resume their independent lives.
“If we were to recall our hospital team from the community, this capacity gap would worsen as their focus would immediately shift from supporting dozens of people at home to the care of 16 patients in Newton Stewart.
“Since two thirds of patients in our cottage hospital estate are simply waiting for home support, it is very likely that Newton Stewart too would be used not for clinical treatment but instead as a less suitable or appropriate alternative to care at home.”
He added: “We do recognise the strength of feeling around services within our communities and in the New Year will be coming out to undertake engagement aimed at developing options for future services and the facilities we will need to deliver them.
“We are currently finalising our plans for this programme of engagement and we look forward to hearing from people across our communities in January and February 2023.”
Meanwhile, Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson has launched a public petition calling for health services to be available in local communities.
The Conservative MSP said: “People deserve and need to be cared for closer to home rather than having to travel all over the region to receive care services that can be delivered on their doorstep. Not only would this be helpful to patients requiring treatment and care but crucially relieve pressures at Dumfries General Royal Infirmary and other larger hospitals.
“What we have to remember is that prior to the pandemic cottage hospitals played a crucial role delivering services for many people closer to home. If you are ill or sick, the last thing you want to face is a long journey in order to be treated.”
