June 12, 2002

A LEADING Scottish National Party MSP visited a Dumbarton home for the elderly last week on a fact-finding mission over 'bed-blocking.'

Nicola Sturgeon, the party’s health spokesman, is concerned that elderly patients are taking up much-needed hospital beds, not due to medical needs, but because they are unable to look after themselves instead of being accommodated in old folks homes because there is no room for them.

Ms Sturgeon paid a call at the Langcraigs Centre, in Gooseholm Crescent, accompanied by West Dunbartonshire SNP leader Councillor Ronnie McColl, where she was shown round by Wilma McCorquodale, Centre Manager, and met some of the residents.

And she found that West Dunbartonshire Council has a good record of providing homes for elderly people.

She told the Reporter: “I was keen to visit this council area to see what is being done and any lessons that could be learned for other parts of the country.

“I have been highlighting for some time the particular problem of bed blocking caused by all the elderly people who are in a hospital setting because there are no alternatives for

them such as better provisions or adaptations for them to enable them to live in their own homes.”

Ms Sturgeon said that West Dunbartonshire fared better than most other areas and was less than the national average when it came to bed-blocking.