Over 1,500 took part in a march through Sidcup on Saturday 1st March (my birthday!) to protest at the planned closures at Queen Mary's Hospital.
The focus has so far been on the loss of accident and emergency facilities at Queen Mary's, but just as important is the loss of maternity facilities at the hospital. Here a midwife speaks to Bromley Times about the impact closures at Queen Mary's will have on the PRU at Farnborough:
"I am here [on the march] because I am livid. "I am worried because we don't have the capacity at the Princess Royal. They have just spent a lot of money only last year on a midwifery-led unit at Queen Mary's so what is the point of spending all that money? "I just don't understand the thinking. We just feel they are not looking at how it is. "The journey from here to the Princess Royal can take an hour-and-a-half. "
The maternity unit at the Princess Royal is very stretched at the moment. It is very stressful. It is continuous. It is day, night, every day, because of the workload. "There is no way they can expand out. There will still be the same number of staff. "We would just have to manage.
Because of the debt, there is no way we can employ more people. It is just an impossible situation." http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk
12 HOUR VIGIL on 20th September 2008. Over 400 signatures collected.
photo copyright News Shopper.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
A Picture of Health - letter to the Editor
From: Gill Galliano, Chief Executive, Lewisham Primary Care Trust to News Shopper 27th February 2008
Your reader...takes us to task for wasting "time, money and resources on what are clearly half thought-out plans."
A Picture of Health is a vital consultation about NHS services for more than a million residents of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
I'm pleased [the reader] took the opportunity to return a questionnaire - because we do want to know what people think before we make final recommendations.
This is why we printed more than 700,000 booklets. The cost was the equivalent of one second class postage stamp for every resident in the four boroughs - 24p.
Response levels to the consultation are so far very positive.
I am concerned she found the document difficult to understand. I can assure her we are working hard to explain the proposals fully to everyone.
For instance, our full page adverts in the local media explain the options in an at-a-glance style.
and our response.......
The Chief Executive of Lewisham PCT states (letters, 27th February) that the cost of each of the 700,000 A Picture of Health booklets is 24p. Funny that. When I was at the Bexleyheath roadshow I was told by another PCT employee that the cost was 46p each.
The booklets were not personalised and / or delivered by Royal Mail, rather a private delivery company was used. In the words of this same employee, "When you get down to the person who is actually delivering the booklets, some of the individuals are bound to be less than thorough in their delivery methods." I can't argue with that. Several thousand extra booklets had to be redelivered as there were parts of Orpington and Petts Wood that were inexplicably not delivered to first time around. Despite deliveries supposedly being completed in January, I have yet to receive my booklet and at the roadshow I was told by one lady that none of her extended family (five separate addresses) had received theirs either. Only 250 individuals attended the Bexleyheath roadshow (which was advertised in the booklet) which represents only about 0.1% of the population locally. If this is mirrored in the number of responses to the consultation questionnaire then the Chief Executive's comment that "response levels...are so far very positive" begin to appear to be very wide of the mark.
John Hemming-Clark
Your reader...takes us to task for wasting "time, money and resources on what are clearly half thought-out plans."
A Picture of Health is a vital consultation about NHS services for more than a million residents of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
I'm pleased [the reader] took the opportunity to return a questionnaire - because we do want to know what people think before we make final recommendations.
This is why we printed more than 700,000 booklets. The cost was the equivalent of one second class postage stamp for every resident in the four boroughs - 24p.
Response levels to the consultation are so far very positive.
I am concerned she found the document difficult to understand. I can assure her we are working hard to explain the proposals fully to everyone.
For instance, our full page adverts in the local media explain the options in an at-a-glance style.
and our response.......
The Chief Executive of Lewisham PCT states (letters, 27th February) that the cost of each of the 700,000 A Picture of Health booklets is 24p. Funny that. When I was at the Bexleyheath roadshow I was told by another PCT employee that the cost was 46p each.
The booklets were not personalised and / or delivered by Royal Mail, rather a private delivery company was used. In the words of this same employee, "When you get down to the person who is actually delivering the booklets, some of the individuals are bound to be less than thorough in their delivery methods." I can't argue with that. Several thousand extra booklets had to be redelivered as there were parts of Orpington and Petts Wood that were inexplicably not delivered to first time around. Despite deliveries supposedly being completed in January, I have yet to receive my booklet and at the roadshow I was told by one lady that none of her extended family (five separate addresses) had received theirs either. Only 250 individuals attended the Bexleyheath roadshow (which was advertised in the booklet) which represents only about 0.1% of the population locally. If this is mirrored in the number of responses to the consultation questionnaire then the Chief Executive's comment that "response levels...are so far very positive" begin to appear to be very wide of the mark.
John Hemming-Clark
"We're doing this from a clinical perspective"
I guess if you say it often enough people will begin to believe it. Why else would Simon Robbins, Senior Responsible Officer for A Picture of Health have blurted the above out at the JCPCT meeting on 3rd March? Unfortunately for Mr. Senior Responsible Officer, the people of Bexley and Bromley Boroughs and elsewhere have already seen through the mutterings of the unelected bureaucrats that are attempting to force through this APoH consultation document that many don't even understand.
The focus has been on the loss of A & E but let's for a moment look at children's services. The Healthcare Commission has given Queen Mary's a "good" for services for children, whilst PRU (Farnborough) and Woolwich both only get a "fair". Yet which hospital is going to lose its children's services - inpatients, assessment and treatment, in all 3 options? Answer: Queen Mary's.
"Clinical perspective" indeed. It would be funny if these people weren't actually deciding our children's future health care provision.
The focus has been on the loss of A & E but let's for a moment look at children's services. The Healthcare Commission has given Queen Mary's a "good" for services for children, whilst PRU (Farnborough) and Woolwich both only get a "fair". Yet which hospital is going to lose its children's services - inpatients, assessment and treatment, in all 3 options? Answer: Queen Mary's.
"Clinical perspective" indeed. It would be funny if these people weren't actually deciding our children's future health care provision.
Monday, 3 March 2008
KEEP OUR N H S PUBLIC
Across England NHS patients and local communities have been linking up with nurses, doctors and other health care workers to meet, march, protest and lobby as they fight to stop further closures and cuts in local NHS services. Beds, wards and even whole hospitals are closing down.
Thousands of health workers' jobs are being axed.But alongside the cuts, an unprecedented process of privatisation is under way: vital services and precious NHS resources are being handed over to the private sector, including companies run for profit for shareholders here and overseas. Now is the time to fight back to Keep Our NHS Public!The campaign was launched in September 2005 and has won the backing of hundreds of senior doctors, academics, health workers and trade union leaders, celebrities, MPs and local campaigners for its launch statement. Now we are inviting all those who support our appeal to JOIN Keep Our NHS Public, and to work with us to build local broad-based campaigns that can stop and roll back the juggernaut of a government policy that is wrecking our NHS.We campaign for our aims and principles.
Chief amongst these:
To inform the public and the media what is happening as a result of the Government's "reform" programme.
To build a broadly based non-party political campaign to prevent further fragmentation and privatisation of the NHS.
To keep our NHS Public. This means funded from taxation, free at the point of use, and provided as a public service by people employed in the NHS and accountable to the public and Parliament. To call for a public debate about the future of the NHS and to halt the further use of the private sector until such a debate is had.
from Keep our NHS Public http://www.keepournhspublic.com
Thousands of health workers' jobs are being axed.But alongside the cuts, an unprecedented process of privatisation is under way: vital services and precious NHS resources are being handed over to the private sector, including companies run for profit for shareholders here and overseas. Now is the time to fight back to Keep Our NHS Public!The campaign was launched in September 2005 and has won the backing of hundreds of senior doctors, academics, health workers and trade union leaders, celebrities, MPs and local campaigners for its launch statement. Now we are inviting all those who support our appeal to JOIN Keep Our NHS Public, and to work with us to build local broad-based campaigns that can stop and roll back the juggernaut of a government policy that is wrecking our NHS.We campaign for our aims and principles.
Chief amongst these:
To inform the public and the media what is happening as a result of the Government's "reform" programme.
To build a broadly based non-party political campaign to prevent further fragmentation and privatisation of the NHS.
To keep our NHS Public. This means funded from taxation, free at the point of use, and provided as a public service by people employed in the NHS and accountable to the public and Parliament. To call for a public debate about the future of the NHS and to halt the further use of the private sector until such a debate is had.
from Keep our NHS Public http://www.keepournhspublic.com
Saturday, 23 February 2008
John to stand in London Assembly elections as a candidate for Bexley & Bromley Constituency
I am pleased to announce today that I will be standing as a candidate in the forthcoming London Assembly elections to be held on 1st May. I will standing in the Bexley & Bromley constituency as a candidate for Independents to save Queen Mary's Hospital. Unfortunately our local politicians are are not doing anything like enough to stop our A & E from closing. Therefore, by standing, every vote that I receive will be a vote that sends a message to our local and national government that we demand a local hospital that offers ALL services. I read today that quangos - that's semi-public bodies with financial support from, and senior appointments made by, the government - now spend £123,000,000,000 of our - the taxpayers' - money a year! The interviewers and interviewees for these quangos are all part of the same cosy club with multiple "directorships" and big salaries to match. I want some of that money and I want it for our local hospital in order that it can continue to offer a full health service.
Nothing less will do.
Nothing less will do.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Derek Conway MP must go....now?
It comes as no surprise that despite 91%* of Old Bexley & Sidcup constituents saying that he should "go now", at the time of writing it appears that Derek Conway MP is going to attempt to hang onto his job until the general election, which could be over 2 years away, with his salary, expenses and extremely generous pension remaining intact. Let's get one thing clear - this guy has misappropriated YOUR money. Why should he be allowed to remain as an MP, whether as a Conservative or not?
The problem that the Conservatives are going to have come the general election, should Derek Conway hang on, is that the voters of Old Bexley & Sidcup are going to see that a vote for CONSERVATIVE X is an endorsement of a party that accepts the shenanigans of its previous MP. I will take on whoever stands as the Conservative candidate in Old Bexley and Sidcup, even if I do have to wait until the general election. I would love to say "bring it on" now and let's have a by-election...but, although I can understand people thinking that "if he says he wants x he actually wants y", my job would become easier by the day, week and month, taking on a failed politician, so that at the last, when the general election is called, the voters will say, "good riddance to bad meat" and vote anything but CONSERVATIVE X. So, if he's not going to do the moral thing and go now, then that suits me just fine.
*'Phone poll, 4.2.08, by Independents to save Queen Mary's Hospital, of 137 voters who expressed an opinion
The problem that the Conservatives are going to have come the general election, should Derek Conway hang on, is that the voters of Old Bexley & Sidcup are going to see that a vote for CONSERVATIVE X is an endorsement of a party that accepts the shenanigans of its previous MP. I will take on whoever stands as the Conservative candidate in Old Bexley and Sidcup, even if I do have to wait until the general election. I would love to say "bring it on" now and let's have a by-election...but, although I can understand people thinking that "if he says he wants x he actually wants y", my job would become easier by the day, week and month, taking on a failed politician, so that at the last, when the general election is called, the voters will say, "good riddance to bad meat" and vote anything but CONSERVATIVE X. So, if he's not going to do the moral thing and go now, then that suits me just fine.
*'Phone poll, 4.2.08, by Independents to save Queen Mary's Hospital, of 137 voters who expressed an opinion
Derek Conway MP faces challenge from Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital
Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital, the party set up last October to fight to prevent any reduction in and closing of services at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup which is in Derek Conway's constituency, today announced that its party leader, John Hemming-Clark, will stand in the Old Bexley & Sidcup Constituency at the next General Election.
Commenting on this announcement, John said,
"Having stood in the by-election in 2006 in the neighbouring Constituency of Bromley & Chislehurst, I know only too well how the electorate is completely fed up with MPs putting themselves before their constituents. (The Conservatives nearly lost this seat which was previously thought of as very safe).
Derek Conway should be spending his time fighting for our local Queen Mary's Hospital to retain its services, including Accident & Emergency which is under serious threat of closure. However, we find he is more interested in getting his family onto the Westminster gravy train than campaigning locally.
Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital's aims include rebuilding first-rate services for local people, including the local health provision and we, and not Derek Conway, are the only party to fight for local people to acheive these aims."
Commenting on this announcement, John said,
"Having stood in the by-election in 2006 in the neighbouring Constituency of Bromley & Chislehurst, I know only too well how the electorate is completely fed up with MPs putting themselves before their constituents. (The Conservatives nearly lost this seat which was previously thought of as very safe).
Derek Conway should be spending his time fighting for our local Queen Mary's Hospital to retain its services, including Accident & Emergency which is under serious threat of closure. However, we find he is more interested in getting his family onto the Westminster gravy train than campaigning locally.
Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital's aims include rebuilding first-rate services for local people, including the local health provision and we, and not Derek Conway, are the only party to fight for local people to acheive these aims."
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