Private companies exist to make a profit for their shareholders. The NHS exists to keep people healthy and look after us when we’re sick. When the two get entangled, the NHS tends to lose out.
The anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza have been in the news in the last day or two – for all the wrong reasons. This is a cautionary tale!
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The attached invite is for the official consultation events for ‘Future Fit’, the programme that’s about slashing NHS spending, getting rid of one of the two A&Es and running down services at the hospital that loses the A&E.
We should do everything we can to get to these events, and to have our say. Note that you need to sign up in advance – consider doing this now!
The first set of meetings is about ‘shaping engagement’ and we should obviously be arguing for maximum public engagement – not just through very small established groups, but with well-advertised open public meetings across the area, maximum opportunities for the public to write in with their views, absolute transparency about feedback etc. This should happen before the ‘preferred option’ is finalised, otherwise we end up ‘consulting’ on something that is already a done deal.
The second set of meetings is about specific strands of healthcare – great if you have prior knowledge or interest of a particular area, but don’t be put off from going if you haven’t. We’re all health service users, and we all have a contribution to make.
Our ‘lines in the sand’ will be very obvious points of principle. We have no problem with changes in the NHS, but we oppose cuts, we oppose worse services, and we oppose worse access to services. Cuts are being made, and there is a public right to know this. Nothing – including the A&E – should be closed down until there is very clearly an alternative service of equal quality in place. Hospital beds and hospital services can’t be replaced by ‘virtual hospitals’ (community services) unless there is enough money put in to make sure that these replacements will work. Changes to local NHS care should be about the creation of an integrated health and social care system and based on a thorough going review of all existing services – and ‘Future Fit’ falls far short of this. We’re opposed to privatisation of services, because this leads to fragmentation, competition instead of collaboration, and health services that are run on the basis of profit not human need.
Please let Gill know if you are attending any of these events.
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Well, we’ve got nothing to worry about. Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt visited Telford in February 2014 and was challenged about the possible closure of one of our two local A&E Departments. Jeremy Hunt said, “We commit to A&E on both sites and there are no plans to change that.” So there you have it. We can sleep easy in our beds.
If this is true, the fears for our A&Es – and the hospitals that go with them – are easily solved. The Chief Executives of the acute hospital trust and of the Clinical Commissioning Groups that buy services can make a straightforward commitment. They can pledge that there will be no closure or downgrading of the A&E departments at Telford or Shrewsbury, and no closure or downgrading of the Princess Royal Hospital or the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
What’s Really Happening
Away from the ‘everything’s fine’ world of Jeremy Hunt, we’re heading quickly for the loss of an A&E department. We currently have two A&Es: one at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, and the other at the Princess Royal Hospital, in Telford. Back in August 2013, Peter Herring – Chief Executive of both hospitals – said that one of the A&Es was likely to close, and that ‘providing specialist health services, including accident and emergency and intensive care, at both hospitals was unrealistic’. The acute trust (the organisation running the two hospitals) is in financial crisis. They’ve just been bailed out to the tune of £4 million by the NHS nationally, because they ended the financial year in serious deficit. Closing down an A&E – or even better, one of your District General Hospitals – is a great way of saving a lot of money.
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An article in the Shropshire Star reporting on the launch of our campaign was the lead story on the paper’s website yesterday evening.
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Press Release 28th March 2014
A Shropshire-wide Defend Our NHS campaign was launched yesterday (27th March), at a packed Peoples Assembly meeting in Shrewsbury Abbey.
The campaign is launched in response to an escalating crisis in the NHS, locally and nationally.
Gill George, spokesperson for the new campaign, said “The immediate threat is to the A&E. It’s clear that NHS bosses have already taken a decision to close one of the A&Es. That would be a disaster. Once you close an A&E, you rip the heart out of a hospital. The intensive care unit closes at the same time, and that means the end of consultant-led maternity services, most surgery, and care for anyone who is seriously ill. It’s about closing down a hospital”.
NHS bosses have already started transferring services out of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Children’s inpatient services are moving to the Princess Royal at Telford, along with consultant-led maternity services and many gynaecology services. Gill George said “It looks like Shrewsbury Hospital is already being run down, in preparation for closing the A&E. It doesn’t matter which way round it is, though: Shrewsbury or Telford. If you close either A&E, we all lose out. A lot of us will travel further for emergency care, the A&E that stays is completely over-loaded, and one of our hospitals gets run down and closed. Our campaign is committed to defending both A&Es and both our hospitals, as well as making sure we’ve got decent community NHS services across the county. We’re opposed to privatising the NHS too. We want an NHS that’s there for patients, not for big business”.
Gill said “The research evidence is that people die if they travel a long distance to get to A&E. Of course you need specialist services for some emergency patients, and we support that, but that doesn’t mean you have to risk the lives of other people. We’ve already got an under-resourced ambulance service, and journey times that are very, very high in our rural areas. These plans will make things worse. This is about cuts, not high quality care. They’ve suddenly come up with this idea of a possible ‘new super hospital’ as a sweetener for short-term cuts, but it’s not going to happen with £30 billion being stripped out of the NHS. If this is for real, they need to identify the funding and guarantee new services before they start closing down what we’ve got”.
Gill added, “This isn’t good enough. School nursing services in Telford and Wrekin could be privatised. We’re going to lose one of our A&Es, and most of the hospital with it. Have they asked us if this is what we want? I don’t think so. We need to make sure that consultation is real, not the usual ‘tick the box’ sham. Our campaign is about making sure ordinary people get a voice”.
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Tagged maternity services, NHS campaign, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Shrewsbury
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Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Defend Our NHS 