COLIN CAMPBELL: ‘Dreadful decision by NHS Highland is an insult to elderly folk across the region’
Sheila Mackay wasn't much taller than five foot-nothing in her stocking soles but she had a giant personality and a sense of commitment and determination to match.
She was an Inverness councillor for many years, took on the rigours of being chairwoman of the town's over-pressured housing committee, was a staunch representative of Hilton when the estate was going through troubled times, and made an impression on virtually everyone she met.
And 30 years ago she was the formidable driving force behind the creation of the Highland Senior Citizens Network. Others were involved as well but she was always credited with coming up with the idea and being the inspiration behind a new organisation whose prime focus was to seek out and find ways to improve the lives of older folk in Inverness and across the Highlands.
Back in 1995, the emergence of this group was welcomed and hailed across the region. On council and care and health decisions and in seeking to address the issues of isolation and loneliness it gave a voice to an often frail, feeble and forgotten section of society.
But now, three decades on, its very existence is threatened.
In an inexplicable move which is as short-sighted as it is mean-spirited NHS Highland bosses have decided to axe their £48,000 annual grant to the organisation, thus at a stroke removing most of the income which enables it to keep functioning.
After three decades of stalwart service, the Highland Senior Citizens Network may be left to wither and die. Doctors who support and are involved with the organisation have fiercely condemned the withdrawal of funding, and no wonder. They will be left to deal with the consequences of its closure.
The NHS Highland decision is quite stunningly foolish and misguided. Yes, we know health budgets are under huge pressure.
But the Senior Citizens' Network is operating on a fraction of a pittance compared to overall health spending. If even one or two elderly people require hospital treatment as a direct or indirect consequence of its demise that would be this £48,000 "saving" gone up in smoke. No one can say that's not likely to happen. And the fallout could be much worse than that.
A spokesman for NHS Highland said: "We receive a significant number of applications for funding from a wide range of sources" and the requests are "far in excess of our available funds".
That sounds in the first place that all those voluntary groups with people giving freely of their time are regarded as a bit of a nuisance with their pleas for a few thousand pounds of support here and a few thousand pounds there. Why should highly paid NHS managers have to be bothered by such trivial requests for funding? And that's a shameful response to a multitude of volunteers.
But if they cannot see the inherent value of an organisation with a 30-year track record of doing a power of good work they are idiotically failing to justify their own roles in the health service.
The dreadful decision for the sake of a few thousand pounds to effectively kill off the Highland Senior Citizens Network is an insult to the memory of Sheila Mackay. And even more importantly it is a grossly unacceptable snub and insult to elderly people right across the Highlands.