'It would not happen at PEH'

WORK on Albecq Ward at the Castel Hospital is being carried out in an 'uncaring manner' around patients suffering from mental illnesses, hospital visitor Jenny Cooke has claimed.

'I do feel the people of Guernsey should be made aware,' said Mrs Cooke. 'Are we a society so inept that this is acceptable?'

Mrs Cooke described the ward as a 'soul-destroying place'. She said the current work, which includes replacing floors and drilling into walls, was too noisy for the patients to endure.

'There is no privacy, even in newly-created single rooms. These patients are ill and require peace and calm.' She felt that such work would not be carried out around patients at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.

In his response, to Mrs Cooke's letter to the Guernsey Press, Health and Social Services minister Deputy Hunter Adam writes: 'Your correspondent states that this work would not have been contemplated on a medical or surgical ward, but I can advise that the department is about to undertake some upgrading work on Victoria Wing at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and that this work will be undertaken while the patients are using those facilities.'

The correspondence can be read in full in our letters section.