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| The crowd at Bolton's Bench into Lyndhurst |
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A common bond brought hundreds of people to
Lyndhurst on a pleasant September evening. They met at Bolton ’s
Bench, awaiting the arrival of 5 black coffins bearing the names
of the 5 local community hospitals facing the threat of closure.
More than 200 people, led by Pipers, marched and waving placards
in anger, lamenting over the PCT’s plan to axe 106 in-patient
beds in Hythe, Milford-on-Sea , Fordingbridge, Romsey and at the
Fenwick Hospital in Lyndhurst .
Local MPs Sandra Gidley and Julian Lewis held aloft a banner
which read:” Bury the PCT Not the Hospitals.”
Traffic stopped as the procession walked down the High Street
and past the Lyndhurst Park Hotel towards Bolton’s Bench.
Horns beeped in support for the marchers. As they arrived, they were met by applause from the waiting crowds
of people joining together to make their voices heard.
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| Two of the coffins that were paraded
through Lyndhurst for Hythe and Fenwick Hospitals |
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Amongst the speakers at the rally was Lawrie McMenamie, Vice
President of Age Concern Hampshire.
He suggested that the PCT should listen to all sides, especially
the health professionals who were opposed to the cuts. He went
on to talk about “false economies in the NHS” which
lead to poor care.
He cited the reduction of porters in a hospital to save money,
which in turn led to theatres waiting for patients to operate on,
producing unacceptable delays. He felt that “administrators
can’t do their sums properly.”
The League of Friends from each hospital were represented at
the rally, and each chairman spoke about the reasons against the
proposals put forward by the PCT and that they would be disastrous
for the New Forest and Romsey communities.
The lack of infrastructure was one such argument, another was
the increasing numbers of elderly in the population, and the financial
costs of treating people at home, as opposed to centralising care
in local community hospitals. Concerns were also raised about the
loss of private sector care for the elderly.
Another highlighted the point that the proposals were under the
auspices of “Community Care for Older People,” however;
Community Hospitals are not the sole domain of the elderly!
The speakers also stressed the point that the community teams
were not in place, and worries about staffing the required posts
with suitably trained staff would be a problem. Many staff had
also expressed their opposition to “the change in the model
of care”, as they believe that it is essential to have community
hospital beds.
The necessity to prevent bed blocking of acute hospital beds
is one of the functions of a community hospital, and serves patients
and carers who are unable to travel distances for their treatment
when it is not suitable at home.
One GP spoke out about the cost of home care, being double that
of hospital care, and about inappropriate discharges into the community.
He appealed for more community hospital funding for rehabilitation
of stroke patients as an example for the need to retain beds.
A retired GP from Hythe mentioned that the PCT would not function
after 2006 and would be leaving behind a legacy of the closure
of an 80 year old resource that had served the public well.
He also took umbrage with the data the PCT were using to back
their claims for change. He stated that the proposals were about
elderly care, and in Hythe Hospital there was 6 Orthopaedic beds
and 11 GP beds – NO ELDERLY CARE beds! The closure of these
beds will have a detrimental effect on respite care.
On a final note, he invited the PCT to resign their posts if
they felt that they had an impossible task, this notion was greeted
with loud applause from the crowd.
One League of Friends Chairman cited the very rural nature of
their area, and voiced serious concerns for the plight of community
staff being able to manage care safely at night, in pitch black
conditions with few road signs to guide them to patient’s
homes.
For many, the proposals reek of robbing “Peter to pay Paul”,
elderly people on their own who are cared for in hospital have
all their care met, but once home, only medical treatment is free
but charged for “social care.” For others, it would
mean more dependence on unpaid carers, family members, or friends.
The rally concentrated on the need for people to continue to
make their voices heard, letting the PCT know what they thought
of their proposals, and that when the consultation period was over,
that the decision could go to the Health Secretary for a final “rubber
stamp of approval.” MPs for the area, Sandra Gidley, Julian
Lewis and Desmond Swayne, all vowed to “do all they could” in
Parliament to keep beds open.
As the twilight turned slowly to darkness, and the crowds dissipated,
one was left wondering, how the PCT slept at night with a huge amount
of public anger against their proposals, and still trying to balance
the books with a mind-boggling multi-million pound deficit to deal
with?
Successive governments have put their heads in the sand rather
than make adequate plans for dealing with the substantial increase
in the numbers of elderly people in the population, when it was
known that there would be an obvious increase in medical and social
resources to care for them with dignity.
Now we are left to “Panic Management” which brings
proposals like these from the PCT, handed down from the Government,
at a time when the public are in no mood for being short-changed.
We have all paid into the Welfare State, and expect to be looked
after from “the cradle to the grave”, as was promised. |
