Thursday 29 March 2018

Future Fit: Not fit for purpose

Message forwarded by Sue Boulding, Baschurch.

 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2018 12:06 AM
Subject: Future Fit: Not fit for purpose

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Dear Supporter

We'll be hearing a lot of triumphant nonsense about Future Fit over the coming months. The line from local MPs and from health bosses is that everyone is delighted, there will be a huge injection of £312 million capital funding, and hospital care for half a million people will be transformed.

Well, no. Not one penny of the £312 million 'investment' is for frontline healthcare; not one penny for patients nor one penny for staff. The money is for shiny new glass and steel buildings – but there will be LESS healthcare in those buildings. This is the funding to drive forward the biggest cuts project we have ever seen in our area.

And here's some more information on the Future Fit cuts plans:
Future Fit has always been a cuts project. It still is. Telford and Wrekin people lose out, because the A&E and Women's and Children's Centre go. Shropshire and Powys people lose out because routine planned care goes.

ALL of us lose out, in a bigger way. This winter, ambulances have been stacked up outside both our A&Es, because the A&Es were already stuffed full of seriously ill patients. And in both our hospitals, patients lay for hours on trolleys because there were no hospital beds for them to be moved into. It was a standard of care that was unacceptable. Future Fit will make things much, much worse. Fewer nurses. Fewer beds. One A&E not two. More pressure on ambulance services that can't cope now. That's Future Fit.

We need BOTH our A&Es. We need BOTH our hospitals. We need a properly funded NHS that provides decent care for ALL of us. That's why we reject their fake choice of 'Close this A&E' or 'Close that A&E'.

Consultation will start in about a month, and run for 12 weeks. We need meetings across the whole of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin to tell people just how rotten Future Fit is. Can you organise a small meeting? Your friends? Your mothers and toddlers group? Your church group? Any clubs or societies you belong to? We can provide a speaker. We can provide leaflets. We can pay for a meeting room if you need one. Let us know.

 

Shropdoc

Wouldn't it be nice if a fraction of the money being spent on hospital buildings went into frontline care instead? Shropdoc would be a good place to start. Shropdoc provides a brilliant GP Out of Hours service – rated last year as the very best in the country – and it's now under threat.

There are two reasons: to save money (there's a surprise); and on instructions from central government.

Our two Clinical Commissioning Groups, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, are planning to put Shropdoc out to tender on 1st April. They want to strip out lots of the things Shropdoc does, leaving patients with a cheaper service and a worse service. They think they can do this without public consultation. We've pointed out that they can't. And if Shropdoc doesn't win the tender, chances are we'll end up with a big private firm called Care UK running the GP Out of hours service.

And the second threat comes from NHS England, with the government standing behind it. The Shropdoc number is going to be taken away on 3rd July. Instead of talking to a local GP when we need out of hours healthcare advice, we'll have to dial NHS 111 – and talk to an untrained advisor, following a computer script, sat in a call centre in Dudley. Who runs that? Oh yes. Care UK!

Looking for something to do? Drop your MP a line (via www.writetothem.com if you like). A lot of this is coming from central government. It's nonsense to lose a really good service – for no good reason at all.

 

Rural Maternity

Hospital trust SaTH is happy to grab the money for shiny new hospitals – but shows more and more contempt for mothers and babies. Yesterday, a woman in labour went to Oswestry Maternity Unit to give birth. While she was there, her contractions suddenly eased off. It happens quite often. She agreed with the midwife that she'd go home and rest, but stay in touch by phone. And when she rang back– she was told the Maternity Unit was going to close for the next 24 hours so she should look for somewhere else to give birth. It's a disgusting way to treat anyone.

SaTH now wants to close the rural Maternity Units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry altogether, to save money. Shropshire CCG is happy to support them. Telford and Wrekin CCG doesn't understand what's happening but is happy to go along with it. Women are paying a very high price – and women and babies are being put at risk.

SaTH bosses plan a fake 'engagement' on their latest plans to destroy maternity care for women in rural areas. We'll be doing our own engagement. Our message will be, we need safe high quality maternity care for all women who need it – urban and rural. Look out for this – it'll be coming your way soon.

For the last year or two, health bosses have been thinking the unthinkable. Now, as local NHS deficits spiral out of control, that's changed. They're no longer thinking the unthinkable. They're just getting on and doing it.

Gill George, Chair
Julia Evans, Secretary

Our mailing address is:
info@shropshiredefendournhs.org

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