A review of community hospitals across the region is under way.
Facilities in Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart, Langholm and Moffat were mothballed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pressure has been growing to have them reopened, with the health board revealing in December there would shortly be a review of community bed base requirements.
Now, the region’s health and social care partnership is asking people to share their thoughts on intermediate community care – which includes care homes and cottage hospitals.
Strategic planning director David Rowland said: “We’re really pleased to now be able to launch an extremely important undertaking that will see us working in partnership with the communities right across our region.
“In broad terms, intermediate care describes what help people are accessing between an acute hospital setting and what they are able to manage independently at home.
“It can be about helping people remain at home when they’re becoming more dependent on care or helping them to recover from illness, a fall or an operation. It can be about preventing people from going into hospital unnecessarily or returning home more quickly after a hospital stay.
“Some of the key locations which feature in the delivery of intermediate care in Dumfries and Galloway are its many care homes, the facilities which offer respite care and its cottage hospitals.
“We’re asking everyone to come on board, and, from their own experience and knowledge of others’, to help build our approaches in an aspect of health and social care which is set to play a vital role in coming years.”
The opinions will form part of Right Care, Right Place: Intermediate Care, which is being used to ensure the partnership is best placed to meet the needs of people in Dumfries and Galloway over the coming years.
People can share their thoughts online at www.dghscp.co.uk/rightcarerightplace and there will also be a series of in-person events.
