A Manx charity says it's 'devastated' by claims Liverpool John Lennon Airport will be closing a Patient Quiet Room it funded.
The facility, which was officially opened in 2017, is designed to be a place where those from the Island who need medical treatment in the UK can wait for their flights in a comfortable setting.
Manx Breast Cancer Support Group says it's finding it 'difficult to believe' and says the decision has been made to make room for more retail space.
Siobhán Fletcher spoke to the charity's Chair, Julie Stokes.
Well, I'll tell you what then, let's do the background first. So if you've ever been to Liverpool, John Lennon Airport, you've probably seen the patient quiet room, seen the little logo on there. But what's the background to this? When did you set that up? In 2017, we're very keen to give us a room, but we actually campaigned for a patient quiet room in Liverpool Airport. We got a very small sort of corridor kind of place by the prayer room, and we paid £10,000 for it to be adapted to be used as a patient quiet room. The Liverpool Airport did quite well out of that, and in 2019, they won an award for helping patients, sick patients with disability, and they offered us a little bit more space. The charity then invested another £5,000 in making the room a little bit bigger and extra furnishings and what have you. Yeah, and you mentioned as well, I mean, you've replaced damage furniture, like this is an ongoing thing for the most breast cancer support group, isn't it? Yeah, totally, totally ongoing, and we had a fabulous relationship with Liverpool Airport, you know, throughout the last seven years. And like you say as well, obviously I realised that we're talking Mount Suppressed Cancer Support Group here, but this is for all patients really, isn't it? It is, it is, without a doubt. Yeah, it's for the whole patient transfer service, and even anybody else who's sick, you know, we've had times where other people who are travelling through Liverpool Airport have used their facilities, and that's absolutely fine. It's a nice quiet space where people can sit down, has about three recliners in there, and people can really take it easy. It's lovely. And so, cut to now, what's the latest update you've had on the room then? How have you found out about this? Well, yesterday through another, you know, we found out that the room was going and we were going to be offered four seats in their newer spiral lounge, anybody that's been to the patient quiet room knows that it's sort of, it's a little bit, it's upstairs, it's just off from the duty free. They're now going to change the Frankie and Benny's into the into a larger spiral lounge, and they're going to need that space of the prayer room and the patient quiet room to enable them to do that, and they offer us four seats in the corner. And so, obviously, that is not equal to the provision that's there at the moment, understandably so, you know, the group must be very annoyed at this. Have you been able to wear your grievances with them? I've spoken to Liverpool Airport this morning, I'd just like to add that, you know, our patients go over there, they have procedures, they have treatments, they have chemotherapy, they have all sorts of things. Coming back, they've usually got a long wait until evening flight back to the island, so they go to the patient quiet room, we have the recliners and stuff for them to sit, they can go there, they can sit there and take it easy and wait till their flight is called. You know, that can't be done on four chairs in the corner of an aspire lounge. People who are using patient transfer will not want to go into that kind of area, I'm very sure other people that pay to go into this spiral lounge would not really want to see people who are as ill as some of our patients are. Yeah, so I guess at the call then, what would your message be to the airport? We have asked, can we have another space? We have a license to use this space, they didn't need to have a decency to come to us and tell us that they were no longer going to offer us a space, we have a license that's not going to do us any good really at this point I don't think, but no, as of yet we've had no offer of any additional space and we've been told it's going to close infinitely. And so yeah, that was my next question, so I mean for patients listening might be worried about this, is this a fairly immediate thing that might be happening? We don't know, I've asked them to clarify and tell us exactly when they will be closing the room and I've asked them and I've pleaded with them to find us some space, I'm still waiting to hear about that. Okay. Could I also just add to that Given that Manx care are totally supportive, you know of the charity in this as is, you know, DHSC and I've had so many calls today from MHK's and all sorts of people. I'd like to thank everybody so much for their support with this, but I do think we really need to keep on with it and make sure that we come out of this with a decent result. Perfect and I guess one more quick thing then. I mean, if anyone's listening and they're concerned, not just patients, but people who've maybe had family members use the room, what's your message to them? Should they be calling their MHK's? What would you like them to be doing? I'd like them to call their MHK ad support to what we're doing. You know, all we want is a nice quiet space that people can go to and be calm and just sit and wait for their flight. You know, it's unfortunate that our patients do have to sort of wait around so much, but that's the way it is unfortunately when you live on an island. But we're just trying to make it as good as we possibly can. Thank you for making it to the end of the MHK's radio newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of MHK's radio podcasts at your favourite podcast provider, so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
