The Future of Local Health Services
All 100 tickets were snapped up by concerned residents of the Moorlands, which was probably helped by our publishing of the event on our various social outlets. We must be doing something right as the week before, one of these events was held in Longton, where only eight of the one-hundred tickets were booked beforehand, and just five people turned up. Maybe, that’s what the CCG want, as their advertisement of events are hardly easy to find, and of course, the less people there, the easier it is for them to push through their cost-cutting measures with (it seems) a complete disregard to what the actual public want, and HAVE paid for with their NHS contributions throughout their working life, but we will get to that later in this article.
The event started on time, and as before, some residents turned up on spec to try and get in and were either refused or were granted access by someone who had a spare ticket (I was one with a spare ticket). The sound system (as before) left a lot to be desired as there was a lot of loud feedback which made it extremely difficult to hear and concentrate. Every table had a CCG facilitator who wrote down our questions and concerns throughout the evening, and the more poignant questions were written down on a post-it note and stuck to a board on the wall (Four of these were later read out at the end and the CCG attempted to answer).
The following text will refer to ‘Page XX’ of the attached ‘Future of Local Health Services Consultation Doc Digital’.
The CCG had prepared a series of ‘options’ with some labelled as ‘preferential’ with regards to ‘Integrated Care Hubs’ (Page 22) and ‘Community Hospital Rehabilitation’ (page 26). Please pay special attention to the ‘ambiguous’ advantages and disadvantages…
Page 23 – We (SLH) were in agreement with the option (2B), which was ‘Leek Rebuild’ (Rebuild the current Leek Moorlands Community Hospital. This would involve building a new hub on the existing site). We agreed with this, but we created a post-it note stating that this would only be accepted with the site retaining all the many services it used to provide (Minor Injuries, X-Ray, beds, etc, basically the hospital it was encased in a new shell) < This post-it note was never read out by the CCG at the end of the meeting, obviously because they don’t want to ‘respond’ to it, in front of so many people without a backlash of biblical proportions.
Page 27 – We (SLH) were in agreement with Option (2), which was 77 community hospital beds at Haywood and 55 beds at Leek Moorlands Community Hospital.
Now this is where I was confused. The CCG are presenting options for two different ‘solutions’, BUT, the two solutions are totally independent of each other EVEN THOUGH they are using the Leek Moorlands Community Hospital as an outcome? Not sure what I am on about? Read the above ‘proposals’ again and what the CCG are offering.
I proposed this question to Marcus Warnes (CCG) at the end of the meeting:
‘Marcus, the SLH like the sound of the rebuild of the current site retaining all old and current services, and because it is a rebuild, it will be easier to incorporate the 55 beds into the plan, will it not?’
Marcus replied:
‘No, these are two mutually independent proposals, the integrated care hub is a different approach and doesn’t utilise beds’
Its quite obvious from the questions asked, and the tone used, that the CCG want to utilise private care-homes. I spoke to Marcus Warnes at the end of the meeting, stating that he needs to knock the care-home option on the head, as it will not wash with the residents of the Moorlands. Over 50% of the care homes that the CCG currently utilise are sub-standard and need improvement. The fact of the matter is, that a private care home is a business that pays minimum wage to staff that are not always trained to a standard, couple this with the major stumbling block that a private care home can wind down its business and close its doors whenever it wants, with no regard to the people it is ‘paid’ to look after, and with no recourse to the NHS, then the ‘option’ really in NOT an option.
One final note, please check out the map below, and look at the area that our beloved Leek Moorlands Community Hospital covers. YES, it is vast! We are the last ‘satellite’ hospital and we are depended upon by over 95,000 homes (We know this as we hand delivered leaflets to as many of the dwellings as we possibly could during the general election).
Our hospital needs MORE services, NOT less!! We NEED beds!! To ‘offer’ (I use the word in the loosest sense of the word) the residents of the Moorlands two option-less, not mutually exclusive ‘options’ with ambiguous advantages / disadvantages is an absolute joke. We will not stand for this and we WILL keep fighting.
Let’s face it, our hospital would have been closed two years ago if SLH had not been formed.
So, let the CCG know in any way that you can that we will NOT be rolled over with false offerings. We want our hospital, refurbed or rebuilt with services and beds, just as it was!
So, let the CCG know in any way that you can that we will NOT be rolled over with false offerings. We want our hospital, refurbed or rebuilt with services and beds, just as it was!
N.B… Karen Bradley did not attend AGAIN, but did send a statement that was read out by her PA. Lots of jeering ensued as per usual. She has not been to ANYTHING to do with the hospital in the last two years.
I felt outnumbered by official CCG people on our table,the sound system was terrible resulting in been unable to think, then to have a stop watch plonker shouting time please all,he nearly got the microphone where the sun don’t shine ,rant over ,The 100 who got tickets is nothing the people of leek will turn out in 1,000’s We want our hospital and we will do all we can to save it , well done to the organisers who are trying to save the hospital
I, along with every other Leek & Moorlands residents, would like our local hospital to remain open, with all the beds, facilities (& everything else our town needs). Why close it, when people, patients can use it. It also frees up beds at the North Staffs hospital when people have had operations, treatment there but still need nursing care.