SUPPORT OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY HOSPITALS
In December, along with about 150 other people, I attended a meeting organised by the leagues of friends of the community hospitals in Cumbria. The following week about a thousand people marched in Penrith in support of local hospitals. Local residents from Millom, Keswick, Workington, and all over Cumbria joined the demonstration to make the point that our local community hospitals provide a vital public service and should be protected. There is nothing which galvanises a community as much as when their hospital is threatened.
I was very impressed by the arguments which I heard at the public meeting, and I do not believe that the case for reducing the role that community hospitals play makes sense.
Last year, when reviewing the services provided by the main Acute hospitals at Carlisle and Whitehaven, the local NHS Trusts in West, North, and East Cumbria suggested that a closer relationship could be built between the District General Hospitals and the community hospitals, which might involve using the community hospitals more to support and enhance the services offered by Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. I always had some reservations about how that might work in practice, but in principle it is one of the trusts’ better ideas. Yet it is beyond belief that the Community hospitals could play that role if some of the proposals which were floated over the past few months – such as closing them overnight – were put into practice.
The Health Secretary recently took time off from making herself a national laughing stock over legislation to restrict smoking and instead talked about the need to boost the role of Community hospitals. If the government is to do this then they must ensure that local trusts fund these hospitals properly.
Make no mistake – the fact that consultation on the trust’s proposals have been deferred does not mean that the Community Hospitals in Millom, Keswick, or anywhere else in Cumbria are safe. We must continue to campaign to support them. But it does appear that the realisation is dawning on both the trusts and the government that they cannot treat our community hospitals as expendable cannon fodder, and on that the government is finally realising that all is not well with the health service in Cumbria.
We must keep up the battle – and we can win.
I was very impressed by the arguments which I heard at the public meeting, and I do not believe that the case for reducing the role that community hospitals play makes sense.
Last year, when reviewing the services provided by the main Acute hospitals at Carlisle and Whitehaven, the local NHS Trusts in West, North, and East Cumbria suggested that a closer relationship could be built between the District General Hospitals and the community hospitals, which might involve using the community hospitals more to support and enhance the services offered by Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. I always had some reservations about how that might work in practice, but in principle it is one of the trusts’ better ideas. Yet it is beyond belief that the Community hospitals could play that role if some of the proposals which were floated over the past few months – such as closing them overnight – were put into practice.
The Health Secretary recently took time off from making herself a national laughing stock over legislation to restrict smoking and instead talked about the need to boost the role of Community hospitals. If the government is to do this then they must ensure that local trusts fund these hospitals properly.
Make no mistake – the fact that consultation on the trust’s proposals have been deferred does not mean that the Community Hospitals in Millom, Keswick, or anywhere else in Cumbria are safe. We must continue to campaign to support them. But it does appear that the realisation is dawning on both the trusts and the government that they cannot treat our community hospitals as expendable cannon fodder, and on that the government is finally realising that all is not well with the health service in Cumbria.
We must keep up the battle – and we can win.
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