Call for National Community Hospitals Campaign
Also to from a National Website about our N.H.S .

We British are a fairly easy-going lot and it needs something pretty important to get us

out onto the streets in protest. We simply don't do demonstrations without a jolly good reason. So when people across the country are starting up local campaigns, marching down the street with banners and protesting in every way that they can, then something must be seriously wrong. Some issue must have touched the heart of their community.

And if there is one issue which is now galvanizing communities across Britain into taking action, it is the fate of our community hospitals. Far and wide, from Aldeburgh in Suffolk to Epsom in Surrey , from Milford on Sea to Henley on Thames , and right along the Yorkshire Coast from Withernsea to Whitby , people are taking to the streets because they fear for their local community hospitals. And this fear is very real. For despite the Government's recent Manifesto promise to increase the number of community hospitals, the reality is exactly the opposite- the local NHS and Primary Care Trusts are trying to close them down.

The Yorkshire Wolds & Coast Primary Care Trust have just declared a deficit for this financial year of; £11m…..a £2.7m increase on the figure predicated earlier this years; is this a case of mis-management we ask? A full public inquiry should be held and the management severely reprimanded.

Despite reassurances from the Trusts' weary Chief Executives that services are being ‘remodeled' to improve ‘service provision' or some such jargon, we all know the real reason, and it is becoming more and more obvious as their financial statements reveal larger and larger deficits- a very serious lack of cash. The Trusts have simply not got enough money to do the job they are supposed to do, which as their name would suggest is to care for the people in their trust. Primary Care Trusts? Primary Cutting (and some would say don't trust) would be a bit more like it.

Who, then, is to blame for the demise of our local hospitals? This government, which has been in power for long enough to need to acknowledge it responsibility, has to take the brunt of the blame. In April 2002, three and a half years ago, they replaced the 99 health authorities in England with Primary Care Trusts. The intention was admirable, to hand over control to local communities, but in so doing the knowledge and expertise which had accumulated in the hands and indeed the brains of the administrators, managers and accountants of the Local Health Authorities was dispersed, spread far and wide, and thinned out to such an extent that incompetence took over where previously competent ‘Authority' had reigned. Book-keepers became accountants, junior managers leapt to posts they could not manage, and then the Government introduced its coup d'aitre (or final nail in the coffin) for the Primary Care Trusts- TARGETS.

Targets are what we aim at but can generally miss without huge disadvantage. We might do our best to hit the bull in the middle of the darts board, but even if we don't we can score pretty well. Government targets are not like that. If you don't reach them, you get penalized. If you do (and show you are capable) then you either have to make your target higher next time and even more difficult to reach, or you get rewarded with cash which by definition you don't need. It's the same whether we are talking hospitals or schools, the police or your local planning department- targets are what they all have to aim for.

But by concentrating on these illusive targets, we are in danger of taking our eye off the ball. Which is exactly what has been happening in our PCT's, with such disastrous results for our community hospitals. Targets are fine if you are just aiming but not forced to hit them, but any system which is target-led runs the risk of anything not specifically targeted being forgotten, put on one side for another day, or just cast aside. In primary schools targets have resulted in teachers being forced to concentrate on core subjects and neglect the wider curriculum. In police forces targets can lead to more restricted policing which is unpopular with the public and harms the vitally important relationship between them. And in our PCT's the chasing of Government targets to reduce waiting lists has been blamed for their money being spent on operations as opposed to operating their community hospitals.

What is needed is a more balanced approach, one which puts peoples needs first, and which puts measurable ‘targets' into perspective. You cannot quantify the reassurance having a community hospital nearby gives to people. You can't measure the good feeling of having your nearest and dearest actually there, near to you, in you local hospital, or the sheer angst of having them three bus journeys away. Which is what the closure of community hospitals will mean, and which is why we, the people of England , are currently raising our heads and saying No to their closure?

The community hospital in my town, Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast, is one of very many across the country currently under threat. Beds are being reduced from 22 to 12, the Minor Injuries Unit being done away with altogether, and as our PCT is in dire financial straits, this could just be the beginning. A demonstration earlier this year brought well over 500 people from across the region onto the streets in protest, but the only way this Government will take notice is if people across the country join together to make their feelings known. I am working with our Conservative MP Graham Stewart to start a National Campaign and to take this message loud and clear, from far and wide, to the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt and the Health Minister Rosie Winter ton at Westminster. Community Hospitals are common sense and we need to work together, across the country and without letting party politics interfere, to retain them.

From Polly Worsdale , East Riding of Yorkshire Liberal Democrat Cllrs for North Holderness- who can be contacted by Email on [email protected]

From: Mick Pilling (Chairmen) Save Support Bridlington Hospital Campaign Group. Who can be contacted on: E-mail: [email protected]

Mick Pilling is also in contact with our local MP the Rt. Hon Greg Knight who is also fighting for a fairer N.H.S.

WE WOULD LIKE TO FORM A NATIONAL WEBSITE ACROSS THE COUNTRY, WERE EVERYONE CAN READ THE MANY STORIES WHICH ARE AFFECTING OUR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE…..ITS HIGH TIME THIS GOVERNMENT LISTENED TO WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT! A RELIABLE HEALTH SERVICE AT POINT OF ENTRY.

What is Needed! A cash injection from Central Government to Stop all these cuts in the N.H.S. An end to P.C.T.'s who waste £m's of N.H.S. money! Contact me NOW!