Junction wife's anger at closure of Llandudno's Bodnant care unit

Dec 11 2008 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

THE distraught wife of an Alzheimer’s sufferer says the closure of the Bodnant elderly mentally infirm (EMI) unit in Llandudno could throw her family into crisis.

The Llandudno Junction woman says the uncertainty over the future of the in-patient facilities at the Maesdu Road facility is putting additional strain on families already struggling to cope with dementia sufferers.

“I don’t understand how they can think of closing the beds when there aren’t enough available at the moment,” she said.

“I took my husband to Ysbyty Gwynedd for an urgent assessment by a psychiatrist and he said he needed to be admitted, but as there wasn’t a bed available on Heulwen ward he would have to go into a side room in the Ablett unit which is for people with serious mental illnesses like paranoid schizophrenia.

“I wouldn’t allow him to stay there because it wasn’t right for him to be in an isolated room off a ward where staff were busy with patients with other conditions.”

“There are so many families who have someone who needs the 24-hour care the Bodnant unit provides. We are in limbo at the moment and not knowing what is happening is adding to the stress of it,” she said.

Ian Turner, chairman of the local branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, said members were very worried about the outcome of a review into the future of Bodnant.

“We are worried about what service will be put in place if the beds at Bodnant go. We understand the building is past its sell-by date but feel money should be invested to bring it up to modern standards.

“It has been said that the beds will move to Bryn Hesketh at Colwyn Bay but there isn’t sufficient spare capacity there for all the people who may need them. This news comes at a time when it is also proposed to close the Plas y Dre and Plas Gogarth care homes in Llandudno which also care for people with some forms of dementia,” he said.