The decision to close Calderstones Hospital, located in Whalley within the Ribble Valley and to cease commissioning forensic learning disability services was made by NHS England in 2017 and the site was transferred to Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust on 1 April 2024.
Over the last few months staff have been awaiting the decision as to what would happen with their jobs. Since this decision was made staff have been told that remaining services were to be relocated to Mersey Care’s Maghull Health Park in Liverpool, more than 40 miles from the site in the Ribble Valley.
Commenting on this announcement, local MP Nigel Evans has said:
“I am hugely concerned about the alternate jobs that are being offered to the NHS staff who have been working at the Calderstones site within my constituency, I have made contact with the Chair of Community and Mental Health Services at Mersey Care, Rosie Cooper to make this concern known.
“In my opinion it is quite clear that we need to support the incredibly skilled and cherished NHS workers who in this instance are being treated very badly and unfairly. Offering replacement employment which would involve an 80mile round trip to and from the Ribble Valley where the majority of staff currently live is clearly not a reasonable alternative employment offer.
“Offering these highly skilled NHS workers jobs many miles away is not only impractical and expensive but would considerably eat into their day given the time it would take to travel to and from Maghull. I believe it is obvious that we need to adopt a holistic approach to this, those staff who are not able to remain onsite should be offered other local opportunities, not one 40 miles away. We need to show our support and gratitude to these workers, many of whom have given many years of their life to working within our NHS, and not treat them in a cavalier fashion simply because the NHS has decided to move its services – this is not the fault of the staff, and they should not be the victims of this decision.
“I strongly believe that we need to take better care of these dedicated and skilled NHS workers and I strongly encourage those within the Mersey Care NHS Foundation to take these points into consideration and offer alternative employment opportunities.”