Dancing with Aunt Sally and the Strawman at Beds in the Orchard.

At Beds in the Orchard it feels like we've been doing a dance with Aunt Sally and the Straw Man when it comes to our complaints.

For anyone who doesn't know what a Straw Man or Aunt Sally argument is, it's explained on Wikipedia but the basic idea is that a debate or argument is knowingly and deliberately skewed to lead the debate or argument in a different direction.

So how are we in an Aunty Sally situation here?

Closing a unit only to women and sending them away for inpatient care is discriminatory.

Some women are better treated at home.

We don't deny that, but closing a unit only to women and sending them away for inpatient care is discriminatory.

Not every clinical presentation is suitable for treatment at the Orchard.

We don't deny that, but closing a unit only to women and sending them away for inpatient care is discriminatory.

We provide beds on a pan-Lancashire basis.

We don't deny that, but closing a unit to ALL women in ONE locality so ALL women are treated away from home is discriminatory.

The Trust's inpatient facilities are able to flex with demand.

We don't deny that, but the Trust has NEVER closed a whole unit to just one sex before and closing a unit only to women and sending them away for inpatient care is discriminatory.

The thing is; if this wasn't at all discriminatory, we'd have had a response outlining how that was the case, rather than these Aunty Sally arguments about clinical presentation, home treatment and flexing.

And yet the dance with the straw man continues...