Site is not right (From Penarth Times)

Site is not right

A FORMER Sully Hospital nurse has spoken with disgust about plans to house 750 asylum seekers at the site.

Barbara Pound, 72, of Murch Crescent, says the hospital should be returned to its former glory as a top medical establishment, and should not be used for asylum purposes.

And Mrs Pound added that her senior radiographer husband Michael, who passed away a couple of years ago, would have been extremely upset about the Home Office's proposals after tirelessly campaigning to keep the hospital open.

Mrs Pound said: "I was a nurse at Sully for four years on intensive care. My husband worked there for 30 years as a senior radiographer. Both of us began there in 1963.

"He was chairman of the Friends of Sully Hospital, and in 1986 he helped write a book on the hospital for its 50th anniversary."

She remembered: "It was a very good hospital. It's a great pity it was destroyed as it was. UHW came along and it all went all over the place, in the early 1970s. It was criminal to close it last year."

She said: "I was horrified about the plans and I think my husband would have been upset. You get very attached to a place. I know they have got to go somewhere, but not a building like that. I don't think it's a place for asylum seekers. It wouldn't be fair for them."

She added: "If they are willing to spend £7 million to make it right for asylum seekers, surely they can spend that in keeping the hospital open."

She suggested using it for respite care: "My husband fought until the day he died to keep it open. What could have happened which my husband was trying to do would have been to keep it open for respite care for the elderly.

"When I went into hospital in 1990 for treatment, my mother went into Sully Hospital's respite care unit for six months. It was wonderful."