Dorset: County council cuts libraries

The Blackmore Vale magazine reports on page 124 that swingeing cuts are being planned to Dorset's libraries in a bid by the County Council to bridge a funding gap.

The article states that: "A reduction in social care provision and the closure of a number of libraries across the county will not bridge Dorset County Council's funding gap.

"Further measures, including redundancies at County Hall are to be taken over the next three years to achieve potential savings of £20 million."

Surely it can't be right that the government is unable to find the money to provide Dorset with enough to sustain these essential local services, but can find the money to increase payments to the audit-failing EU by an extremely generous 63%.

Let's hope Dorset's MPs don't vote for such an obvious failure to properly prioritise scarce public resources, when the EU budget deal that pledged this increase comes before Parliament for approval.

Certainly the claims of MPs that vote for the terrible EU deal will never be able to claim credibly that they are standing up for public services.

Article submitted by: B.W., Dorset

Oxfordshire: 'Drugs would help me live longer'

The Oxford Mail reports today that a cancer sufferer fears he will die before he can finish his revolutionary eco-home because he has been refused what he believes is a life-saving drug.

Malcolm Cole, 67, from Fulbrook, near Burford, says he knows the Multiple Myeloma cancer he developed in 1993 will kill him eventually, but says a new drug called Velcade could buy him two more precious years of life.

That would give the former RAF officer the time he needs to complete a unique underground energy-saving home he has been working on for years.

However, although Velcade is available on prescription in Wales and Scotland, and in some prmary care trust areas in England, the South West Oxfordshire NHS PCT has denied Mr Cole the drug.

The trust said it followed the advice of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which said the drug, which costs £30,000 for a course of treatment, was not cost effective.

Mr Cole says he is in a battle against time to get Velcade and believes that without the drug he will die of Multiple Myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, before Christmas.

"Doctors have given an oath to try to preserve life, but they have the power over life and death and I feel they have decided to end my life.

Mr Cole said he had seen evidence which showed the drug had a 70 per cent success rate, but PCT spokesman Alison Brumfit said: "Decisions made on funding are based on the cost of something against how likely it is to be effective.

"There has never been a limitless pot of money and it's true that the less money we have got, the fewer treatments we can provide, but decisions are never solely based on cost."

Certainly funding can never be "limitless" - nobody believes that. But there could be a lot more money available for less "effective" yet nevertheless helpful treatments if Oxford's MPs weren't so keen on wasting billions more on the audit-failing EU.

Sunderland: Health trust plans 500 job cuts

A health trust is to axe about 500 jobs in the latest round of NHS job cuts, the BBC reports today.

City Hospitals Sunderland Foundation Trust said it had to cut 10% of its 5,000 workforce to clear a debt of £5m.The trust, which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital, Ryhope General and Monkwearmouth Hospital, also wants to save £20m over the next few years.

It said it hoped the jobs could be shed through "natural wastage".

Since March 2006 more than 9,000 jobs have been shed by trusts across the UK. Chief executive of the trust, Ken Bremner, said losing jobs was a major concern, but necessary to save money over the next three years.

Spalding: NHS in crisis

The Spalding Target this week launches a major attack on health secretary Patricia Hewitt over NHS cuts being experience in the East Lincolnshire area.

The local East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust is being accused of cutting services to fight a £13.5 million debt.

The Target lists services that are under threat as family planning clinics, teenage advice centres, rationing of drugs like breast cancer drug Herceptin, cutbacks to district nurse visits and a "host of measures that will hit every section of our community."

The newspaper is accusing local NHS trusts of trying to "railroad" through the cuts, claiming not to have received "a single word by way of press release or notice" about the consultation document or two public 'drop in' events in Spalding.

Under a headline "Putting £££s before lives?' on page 4, the Target reveals that a cancer sufferer - Jan Steward from Holbeach - has accused health officials of "putting a death sentence on people's heads" through rationing of breast cancer drug Herceptin in order to cut costs. The plan could impact on thousands of women across Lincolnshire.

The article also reveals that the trust aims to slash £900,000 from its community nursing services budget alone. One retired district nurse claims that the service is already "less than perfect", following her experience of a lack of home support after having a knee operation.

The trust also plans to limit the availability of hip and knee replacement surgery to only people with a Body Mass Index below a certain level. However, as another retired nurse points out, people can become overweight through being inactive, rather than for diet reasons - and a good reason for inactivity is if you have a hip or knee problem.

On page 7, the Target gives the full list of cuts, aimed at saving just £3.1m of the trust's £13.5m debt:

- £900,000 from community nursing;
- £900,000 from "low priority procedures list", for example restricting Herceptin and barring certain people from having operations;
- £400,000 from therapy services;
- £340,000 from speech and language services;
- £270,000 from closure of contraceptive clinics;
- £90,000 from minor surgery;
- £60,000 from podiatry (foot) services;
- £20,000 from cutting the opening hours of Gainsborough hospital minor injuries unit;
- £120,000 from flouridation of water supplies budget.

The bottom line is that the E. Lincs NHS Trust wouldn't have to make these cuts or quibble about who qualifies for surgery if they were given the resources necessary to meet local NHS needs.

If the government can't do that, then it certainly shouldn't be increasing payments to a body like the EU by an unjustified 63%, handing an organisation that hasn't had its accounts approved by auditors for twelve years running an extra £2.5bn every year.

Chichester: Thousands rally to support St Richard's

Thousands of people took part in the biggest public protest ever seen in Chichester on Saturday morning, reports the Chichester Observer.

They were demonstrating against any major cutbacks in services at local St Richard's Hospital.

The crowd filled the Chichester Cathedral green from end to end, with people carrying placards, banners, balloons and posters, with slogans that made their feelings plain - 'stop this madness,' 'lives are at risk,' and 'please save our hospital.'

Chichester MP Andrew Tyrie, who organised the demonstration, joined three fellow MPs in addressing the rally, in the shadow of the cathedral. A senior clinician from St Richard's and a local GP spelled out the implications if major trauma accident and emergency and other services are lost.

Impact of NHS deficits 'deepens'

The BBC reports today that dozens of hospitals are facing acute pressure and social care services are being scaled back because of NHS deficits, quoting two separate reports.

The Liberal Democrats said 16 NHS trusts, running 28 hospitals, were facing "high pressure". They said services would be scaled back and hospitals might even close.

And a Local Government Association survey of 55 councils in the areas affected by NHS deficits said some services had been withdrawn.

The health service finished last year more than £500m in deficit, with one in three NHS bodies failing to balance their books.The problems have already led to jobs being cut, operations delayed and wards closed.

Manchester: Troubled NHS trust sells office

A hospital trust which is £28m in debt is to sell off its headquarters to help balance the books, the BBC reports today.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust said its Westhulme building in Oldham - a former infectious diseases hospital - is going on the market. Staff were told on Friday that they will move to offices across the trust's four hospitals.

It is hoped the move will also help reduce the number of posts to be lost, now estimated as 325. The trust said the majority of staff affected will be redeployed and it hopes that less than 100 will actually be made redundant.

Pennine Acute runs North Manchester General, The Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and Bury's Fairfield General Hospital. It has an annual budget of more than £400m and employs about 10,000 staff.

But it is facing a £21.3m deficit this year and has an underlying recurrent deficit of £28.3m.

As part of its "recovery programme", about 10% of the trust's 2,500 beds will be reduced, but bosses said that this in line with wider NHS forecasts for moving health services into the community.

The 284 Westhulme staff will move to different hospitals, with the management team and official headquarters based at North Manchester.

So this trust is having to chop 250 beds and cut staff with all the implications for patient care and increased suffering that has - all due to a deficit equivalent to less than TWO days worth of our payments to the EU? Surely the EU can spare a couple of days of our cash to save 250 hospital beds.

Oxford: NHS cutbacks hit social care

Oxfordshire's social services are creaking at the seams because of the NHS funding crisis, councillors claim - reports the Oxford Mail.

County councillors are set to complain to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust that changes to its services are putting the social care department under extreme pressure.

On Tuesday, members of the council's cabinet called for a halt to cuts in community-based NHS services. The knock-on effect has forced the council to spend £250,000 more on social care at this stage of the financial year than projected.

This figure looks set to more than double by the end of March next year, as NHS cuts cause demand for council-run services to grow.

At the cabinet meeting, councillors were told that:

- a joint primary care trust and council budget used to buy care home beds for the elderly was £300,000 overspent by the end of May and planned expenditure for September was now being used;

- an NHS fund to pay for long-term care beds was not increased in line with inflation this year, putting more pressure on the same budget

- the ORH is reducing the average length of time people spend in hospital, leading to increased demand for social care beds;

- some 31 beds in the Radcliffe Infirmary have been closed this year and while PCTs are paying for alternative beds this financial year, there is no commitment for payment to continue next year.

With this news, can Oxford's MPs in all conscience vote billions of pounds extra per year away to the EU - completely without justification - while local services clearly need more cash to provide necessary care? What would such irresponsible choices with scarce public money communicate to local voters about the real interest of their MPs in ensuring decent local health and social care services?

NHS 'lets down allergy patients'

People with allergies often feel let down by the NHS and can wait months to see a specialist, a government review of services has found, highlights the BBC.

The report said charities and other groups were often left to plug the gaps in NHS care. It said more should be done to help the third of people who are affected by allergies at some point in their life.

But doctors said the government could not devolve responsibility for allergy care to local health groups.

The report was compiled after submissions from groups and individuals with an interest in allergy care. It followed criticisms of NHS allergy services by the House of Commons health select committee.

Around a third of the total UK population - 20 million people - suffer from allergies at some stage in their lives.

How much could the £115 million a week leaking away to the EU contribute towards alleviating a problem being suffered by a third of Britain's population?

Witney: GPs hit by PCT cash shortage

Plans for a bigger, better building for Witney's largest health centre have been scuppered because of a lack of NHS funding, reports the Oxford Mail.

GPs and staff at Windrush Health Centre - which has about 12,700 registered patients - were finally given hope of replacing the cramped, outdated surgery with a new building after getting the go-ahead from health managers to develop its site in Welch Way.

They organised for architects to assess the site and plans were drawn up - but have now had to postpone work after South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust said there was no money available to fund the surgery once it was built.

Senior practice partner Dr Paul Watson said: "Unfortunately, because of the dire financial circumstances in the health economy, no surgery developments are currently being supported, even though we are desperately short of space.

"We do not know when or whether we will be able to begin work on our new building."
The new centre would have had double the floor space of the existing surgery.

Dr Watson added: "The problem is that there's always buck-passing. Government sets new targets, but the funding doesn't match."

Witney's 15-bed Moorview Hospital, which treated elderly people with mental health problems, closed last month as part of the Mental Health NHS Trust's plans to reduce a projected £7.2m gap in its budget.

Ruth Atkins, spokesman for South West and South East Oxfordshire PCT, said before 2004, rent payments for GP surgeries were funded centrally at no cost to PCTs or local health authorities.

Ms Atkins said although Windrush Health Centre was a number one priority for South Oxfordshire PCT, this may not be the case when the PCTs merge in October.

Anger over 'legality' of NHS cuts

A Cornish district council boss is questioning the legality of an NHS trust's plans to cut health services, says the BBC.

Penwith Council chief executive Jim McKenna has written to the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust over proposals for hospitals in Hayle and Penzance.

He has questioned plans to close St Michael's Hospital and cuts at the West Cornwall Hospital given that the county council has not been consulted.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust's chief was unavailable for comment.

The NHS in Cornwall is facing a potential £31m deficit. The Trust is cutting costs and 300 jobs to try to reduce the projected deficit. Emergency surgery will not be carried out at the West Cornwall Hospital from the end of August.

Cornwall: MP moves to oppose hospital cuts

The BBC reports that a Cornwall MP Andrew George is to meet a health minister to discuss the possible closure of a Cornwall hospital.

The Lib Dem MP for St Ives opposes plans being considered by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust to shut St Michael's Hospital in Hayle.

The Trust is cutting costs and 300 jobs to reduce a potential £31m deficit. A memo leaked to the BBC revealed plans to close St Michael's 70 beds.

Yet the £31 million deficit causing the problem is a tiny fraction of the £115 million a week we'll be sending the EU from next year, if the deal Tony Blair did in December is approved by MPs like Mr George.

So more interesting than his meeting a minister, is Mr George going to vote for this 60% increase in our payments to the EU while EU auditors still can't tell us how the majority of its budget is spent, and while a hospital in his constituency is threatened with closure for a small proportion of the extra amounts Blair wants to fire-hose at the EU?

That'd take some explaining to his constituents, come the next election.

Oxfordshire: Stark warning on NHS cuts

A report by Oxfordshire County Council's director for social and community services, Charles Waddicor, issues a stark warning about the cuts being proposed to health services in Oxfordshire - reports the Oxford Times.

He makes it clear that the rush to cut services to keep within budget is being made with little thought about the impact on services provided by other authorities like the county council.

It is a classic example of the lack of joined-up government.

We have said before that the health authorities should not be forced to make cuts to get within budget in a short space of time. If they do have to go through this, then it should be phased over a period of two or three years.

It avoids the need for drastic decisions and it means the health authorities can take a more measured look at what they are proposing to do, including the knock-on effects of any cuts.

Grantham: Hospital consultants speak out on plans

Consultants at Grantham Hospital have passed a vote of no confidence in managers over proposals to cut services at Grantham Hospital – reports the Grantham Journal.

Members of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee say their views were not taken into account by managers when the preferred option for the future of hospital services in the county was drawn up.

It includes the downgrading of A & E services, an end to most surgery, the closure of the midwife-led maternity unit and cuts to women’s and children’s services.

The changes would leave the county with just two district general hospitals, in Lincoln and Boston.

Chairman of Grantham’s medical advisory committee Stephen Vogt said: "We unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in thr Trust board in the light of the practices they were going through to map out the money-saving motivated changes to services at Grantham Hospital.

Mr Vogt said he personally was upset by plans to close Grantham’s midwife-led maternity unit.
He said: "It would be 100% spiteful to close the midwifery unit. There are a lot of people who never approved of the midwifery unit and they’ve kept their knives in their sheaths waiting to stab us."

A public consultation will be launched in November and a hospital action group has been established to co-ordinate a campaign against cuts to services.

But where is Grantham MP Quentin Davies while this devastation is being wrought to local hospital services in his constituency?

He’s busy in Westminster planning to vote a £2.5bn a year pay rise to the audit-failing EU – money that could solve NHS problems in his constituency at a stoke.

If he does vote that money away, that’s unlikely to go down well with local voters, come the next election.

Article submitted by: Mr. R.H., Grantham

Chichester: Rally to save St Richard's

One of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in Chichester city centre is being planned for Saturday, July 22, in support of St Richard's Hospital - according to the Chichester Observer.

Many hundreds of people are expected to gather at the City Cross, as a huge campaign against the possible closure of accident and emergency services – or even the whole hospital – continues to escalate.

After arriving at the Cross, the protestors will be invited to walk to the cathedral green, where cathedral authorities have given permission for a mass meeting to take place.This will be from 10am to 11.30am.

Meanwhile, the number of signatures on a petition backing St Richard's has soared above 40,000, and names are still pouring in.

North Surrey: MP’s challenge over downgraded hospitals

Esher & Walton MP Ian Taylor has challenged the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt over the downgrading of local hospital services affecting his constituents.

In a question in Parliament, Mr Taylor said: "Epsom hospital is losing its general hospital status quite rapidly, and three community hospitals (Cobham, Thames Ditton and Molesey) are being starved of revenue because the primary care trust is encouraging patients to move out of a general hospital straight home, which has led one local GP to say that there were unsafe discharges."

He added: "There are serious revenue problems, so how will the Secretary of State’s announcement about her capital spending plan help my constituents?"

After the debate Ian Taylor commented: "I don’t feel that the minister fully appreciates the difficulties downgrading of hospital services creates for my constituents.

"There is already removal of full acute and maternity services at Epsom and three local community hospitals are unclear about long term commitment to NHS funding.

"This is not a happy situation"

Presumably, then, Ian Taylor will not be approving the payment of billions of pounds extra to the EU, when the EU budget deal comes before Parliament.

Given paying 63% more to the EU is completely unjustified while auditors cannot approve how the vast majority of the money the EU already receives is being spent, would he not rather see the extra £2.5bn a year at stake spent on preventing the downgrading of local hospital services, or even improving them?

Complaining about cutbacks to services, but quietly voting billions of pounds away to the EU that could otherwise be used to rectify the problem he is taking a stand against will leave Mr Taylor open to charges of hypocrisy, likely to seriously hit his support at the next election.