MADAM, Kingswood Residential Hall in Kington is under threat of closure by its owners, South Shropshire Housing Association, with the loss of 31 beds for the elderly and infirm people of Kington and surrounding district, along with the loss of 42 nursing staff.
This will, among other issues, make the heavy demand on hospital beds in this area even more acute.
Common sense must prevail when a bed in a nursing home costs approximately £350 and a bed in a hospital costs approximately £1,200.
Where will the 28 residents from Kingswood Hall go when there are already long waiting lists for the other nursing homes? Most of these residents (some of them over 100 years of age) are settled and know it as their home.
A Primary Care unit is being built in Kington but only six beds will be subsidised by the Social Services and 18 beds will be for private use. This will leave no spare beds for the Kingswood residents.
Herefordshire Council has said it is not reducing funding at Kingswood Hall and the Social Services have said they will support the home in the normal way.
Staff at the home have done their part by reducing the outgoings from £120,000 to £30,000 and yet the housing association still says it cannot make the home a paying concern.
This home is possibly one of the best in the county and an excellent job has been done in its running including modernising the bedrooms and other building works employing mainly local tradesman and using local traders.
South Shropshire Housing Association is well respected in this area and we would ask them to consider every possible option and to seek every possible help they can even if they have to appeal for private investments from local businesses/people to maintain the running of Kingswood Hall.
I appeal to everyone in the Kington area to come forward and help in any way they can to stop this devastating closure because we must all remember that we can not stop the ageing process and where else would anyone rather be than in their own familiar locality when that time comes?
TOM BOUNDS,
Barton Row, Kington.
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