Local campaigns to save services in Maidstone Hospital are to be co-ordinated in a new organisation called MASH (Maidstone Action for Services in Hospitals) - reports the Downs Mail.
The group is already supported by Maidstone's two MPs, cabinet members of both Kent and Maidstone councils, Maidstone Division of the British Medical Association, the two main local newspapers the Downs Mail and Kent Messenger, together with patients and relatives.
Maidstone Hospital has several mountains to climb, including better management of C-Diff infections which killed more than 90 patients and led to a damning report by the Healthcare Commission.
While the hospital's record is now improving, reports still abound of A&E patients being "stacked" in ambulances due to serious delays in emergency admissions.
December saw a significant increase in the number of people waiting over four hours from a decision to admit to admission - 941 waited more than four hours, with 4 patients waiting more than twelve hours).
The main reason was said to be a lack of beds in A&E.
The hospital also has continuing financial problems, with the trust facing a deficit of £18.7m for 2008/09 and a total savings requirement of £21.2m - amounts that could be wiped out with two days' worth of our payments into the audit-failing European Union budget, if that wasted money were diverted into hospital services.
Showing posts with label kent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kent. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 March 2008
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
At-risk Post Office outlets named
The Post Office has announced the first 180 branches earmarked for closure under government plans to shut 2,500 by the end of next year - reports the BBC.
The first closures are planned for post offices in Kent, East Yorks and the East Midlands and a six week consultation period has begun.
The government says cuts are needed as the current 14,000-strong network has been losing £4m a week.
However, the cuts are actually needed because the government is unwilling or unable to maintain subsidies to loss-making offices, on the basis of their service to the community - often its most vulernable members.
However they do appear willing and able to increase payments to the audit-failing EU's budget by 63% - many billions more a year than subsidising loss-making post offices would cost.
Consumer watchdog Postwatch said that the closures were bad news, but it accepted the government spin that the current network was "unsustainable" (without further subsidy).
The government decided in December that 2,500 closures were required and said at the time that it wanted to help the Post Office modernise, restore profitability in its main offices, invest in new products and look at innovative ways to deliver services.
On Tuesday, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said it would provide funding of "up to £1.7bn until 2011 to continue to support the network" and to enable the Post Office "to modernise and rationalise".
However the government has recently agreed to gift the EU far more - an extra £2.5bn every single year, despite 12 years of the EU failing its audit. Is this a demonstration of the right priorities?
MPs who vote to approve the obvious waste of the EU budget deal when it comes before Parliament in the next session will be to blame for these consequent shortfalls in funding for essential public services.
The first closures are planned for post offices in Kent, East Yorks and the East Midlands and a six week consultation period has begun.
The government says cuts are needed as the current 14,000-strong network has been losing £4m a week.
However, the cuts are actually needed because the government is unwilling or unable to maintain subsidies to loss-making offices, on the basis of their service to the community - often its most vulernable members.
However they do appear willing and able to increase payments to the audit-failing EU's budget by 63% - many billions more a year than subsidising loss-making post offices would cost.
Consumer watchdog Postwatch said that the closures were bad news, but it accepted the government spin that the current network was "unsustainable" (without further subsidy).
The government decided in December that 2,500 closures were required and said at the time that it wanted to help the Post Office modernise, restore profitability in its main offices, invest in new products and look at innovative ways to deliver services.
On Tuesday, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said it would provide funding of "up to £1.7bn until 2011 to continue to support the network" and to enable the Post Office "to modernise and rationalise".
However the government has recently agreed to gift the EU far more - an extra £2.5bn every single year, despite 12 years of the EU failing its audit. Is this a demonstration of the right priorities?
MPs who vote to approve the obvious waste of the EU budget deal when it comes before Parliament in the next session will be to blame for these consequent shortfalls in funding for essential public services.
Labels:
east midlands,
kent,
post offices,
yorkshire
Sunday, 20 August 2006
Kent: Hospital wards to be closed
Hospital wards across the county are facing closure as the cash-strapped NHS tries to balance its books, reports the Kent on Sunday newspaper.
Concern is being expressed for elderly patients as hospitals prepare to cut beds.
Wards for the elderly are under threat in Margate and Canterbury, and further cuts have not been ruled out at Ashford, Dover and Folkestone.
The cuts are being caused by the £35 million of debt being suffered by East Kent Hospitals NHS trust and are aimed at saving money so that this debt can be repaid.
Trust chiefs have refused to reveal the full details of their plans, but the Kent on Sunday has learned that two wards at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital are under threat, as is one ward at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Wards could also be closed at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Buckland Hospital in Dover and Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone.
Kent and Sussex Hospital and Maidstone Hospital are also set to lose 120 beds, the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has said.
Campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent has raised fears that old and vulnerable patients may be forced out of their beds when wards are shut.
Article submitted by: Mr. D.B., Maidstone
Concern is being expressed for elderly patients as hospitals prepare to cut beds.
Wards for the elderly are under threat in Margate and Canterbury, and further cuts have not been ruled out at Ashford, Dover and Folkestone.
The cuts are being caused by the £35 million of debt being suffered by East Kent Hospitals NHS trust and are aimed at saving money so that this debt can be repaid.
Trust chiefs have refused to reveal the full details of their plans, but the Kent on Sunday has learned that two wards at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital are under threat, as is one ward at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Wards could also be closed at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Buckland Hospital in Dover and Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone.
Kent and Sussex Hospital and Maidstone Hospital are also set to lose 120 beds, the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has said.
Campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent has raised fears that old and vulnerable patients may be forced out of their beds when wards are shut.
Article submitted by: Mr. D.B., Maidstone
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