Daily Archives: 2 Aug 2017

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, NHS (local), Sarah Randall Johnson, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton, Spin

Eastern Devon – your new fantasy health care after hospitals closed

“… Dr Sonja Manton, director of strategy for both Devon Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “The current model of care is not sustainable either clinically or financially, so we have to look at doing something differently.

“We are extremely grateful to the Devon Health Scrutiny Committee members for the time they have put in to reviewing our plans in order to feel assured about the changes we are making. We thank them for their diligence and constructive challenge. Their insight was invaluable.

“We are now ready to move to the next step and start the final preparations of implementation and making the changes we have proposed.”

The Your Future Care proposals, which were subject to a 13-week public consultation that closed earlier this year, set out to move away from the existing bed-based model of care. Instead it focuses on a model of care that proactively averts health crises and promotes independence and wellbeing. By redirecting and reinvesting some existing bed-based resources, community services can be enhanced to support more home-based care by establishing:

Comprehensive Assessment
Single Point of Access
Urgent Community Response

The net result of this new approach will mean a reduction in inpatient beds in community hospitals in the Eastern* locality of Devon and an increase in community-based staff to support Out of Hospital Care.

Deputy Chief Executive/Chief Nurse of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Em Wilkinson-Brice, said: “The endorsement from the members of the committee coupled with the clinical recommendation to proceed from the assurance panel, will support public confidence that our plans are not only safe but will provide improved care.

“By moving to this model of care, we can help more people to have a better outcome – ensuring that across the whole of Eastern Devon everyone has access to safe, reliable services that promote independence and support people to live their life to the fullest.”

A significant amount of implementation planning including engagement with the workforce, stakeholders and local communities has already been undertaken and now that these two important milestones have been reached, the RD&E will, for the benefit of staff and patients, ensure that the move to provide more care and support in people’s homes is done in a safe and timely manner. In order to achieve this, the RD&E will continue to work closely with staff, partner organisations and communities to take a phased approach to implementation.

Further information specific to each of the four community hospitals will be provided in due course.

*The Eastern locality includes Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon and parts of West Devon including Okehampton”

http://devonccg.newsweaver.com/GPNewsletter/un6s1ilvrc3qm5yxda10xa?email=true&a=2&p=1797435&t=289800

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Hunt secretly visits Devon hospitals – too little too late? Or a privatisation dry run?

” … A Department of Health spokesman said: “Today he [Jeremy Hunt] visited Weston Hospital, Barnstaple Hospital and Exeter Hospital.

“The purpose of these visits was not to do media but to talk to hospital staff and managers about their work and gain insights into the local healthcare system.”

Councillor [Frank] Biederman [DCC Independent, Fremington Rural] sees the visit as more political than practical, he said: “Jeremy Hunt is at North District Hospital today. This tells me they are expecting another election, within 12 months, no other reason he would come to North Devon.”

Frank, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, added: “They should stamp on his foot, really hard and send him to Exeter for treatment.”

The visit comes a couple of months after the results of an Acute Services Review from the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust.

A report issued as a part of the review recommended that North Devon District Hospital, one of those visited by Mr Hunt today, retain its A&E, maternity, paediatrics, neonatal care and emergency stroke services.

Health campaigners from Save Our Hospital Services welcomed the news but are seeking clarification on how theses services will be funded in the future.”

http://www.devonlive.com/jeremy-hunt-tours-devon-hospitals-prompting-general-election-talk/story-30466779-detail/story.html

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Scrutiny, Transparency

“What does democracy require of England’s local governments?”

“Local governments should engage the wide participation of local citizens in their governance via voting in regular elections, and an open interest group and local consultation process.

Local voting systems should accurately convert parties’ vote shares into seats on councils, and should be open to new parties entering into competition.

As far as possible, consistent with the need for efficient scales of operation, local government areas and institutions should provide an effective expression of local and community identities that are important in civil society (and not just in administrative terms).

Local governments should be genuinely independent centres of decision-making, with sufficient own financial revenues and policy autonomy to be able to make meaningful choices on behalf of their citizens.

Within councils the key decision-makers should be clearly identifiable by the public and media. They should be subject to regular and effective scrutiny from the council members as a whole, and publicly answerable to local citizens and media.

Local governments are typically subject to some supervision on key aspects of their conduct and policies, in England directly by UK government in Whitehall. But they should enjoy a degree of constitutional protection (or ‘entrenchment’) for key roles, and an assurance that cannot simply be abolished, bypassed or fully programmed by their supervisory tier of government.

The principle of subsidiarity says that policy issues that can be effectively handled in decentralised ways should be allocated to the lowest tier of government, closest to citizens.”

http://www.democraticaudit.com/2017/08/02/audit-2017-how-democratic-is-local-government-in-england/

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Corruption, Developers/ Development, Environment (local), Freedom of Information and EIA, Planning System, Sleaze, Sustainability

Planning decisions must take air quality into account – so a council falsified the data

NOT the developer, the COUNCIL. Do we need any better evidence that it appears some councils no longer work for us but DO appear to work for (andcan be corrupted by) developers?

Cheshire East is the council that has suspended its CEO, its Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer for unknown reasons. The CEO formerly worked at Torbay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39495102

Though, of course, suspension is a neutral act and doesnot imply guilt.

http://www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk/news/15416114.Second_senior_management_suspension_as_Cheshire_East_Council_investigates_misconduct_allegations/

On that air pollution scandal:

“A local authority has admitted its air pollution data was deliberately manipulated for three years to make it look cleaner.

Cheshire East council apologised after serious errors were made in air quality readings from 2012 to 2014.

It is reviewing planning applications amid fears falsified data may have affected decisions in at least five towns. It said it would reveal the full list of sites affected this week.

When considering planning applications councillors have to look at several factors, including whether a development will introduce new sources of air pollution or release large amounts of dust during construction.

Government’s air quality plan branded inadequate by city leaders
“It is clear that these errors are the result of deliberate and systematic manipulation of data from a number of diffusion tubes,” a statement on the council website said.

Sean Hannaby, the director of planning and sustainable development, said: “On behalf of the council I would like to sincerely apologise in respect of these findings, we would like to assure everyone that we have done everything we can to rectify these failings.”

He added: “There are no immediate health protection measures needed as a result of these errors.”

Cheshire East council, like all other authorities, monitors nitrogen dioxide levels on sites throughout the borough as part of work to improve air quality. The information is then submitted to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Oliver Hayes, a Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner, said the fact that the data was falsified was outrageous. He said: “Residents will rightly be wondering what this means for their and their families’ health. The council needs to be fully transparent about how far the numbers were manipulated and what impact this has had on the local area.”

He added: “If this is happening in Cheshire East, where else across the country are pollution figures being lied about? … National and local government need to get serious about dealing with this invisible killer, not just cooking the books and hoping the issue will go away.”

An internal review by council auditors last year found the air quality data submitted was different to the original data from the council’s monitoring equipment. It prompted an external investigation, the results of which were released last week.

The falsified data was from testing stations spread over a wide geographical area, according to the report. It noted: “The air quality team have reviewed their internal processes and procedures to ensure that the risk of data adjustment is minimised. There are now a number of quality control measures in place.”

Cheshire police said officers would review the case to establish if any criminal offences occurred.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We are aware of this issue and understand the local authority is now considering its response to the investigation.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/02/cheshire-east-council-admits-falsifying-air-pollution-data

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Planning System

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Plymouth says No to new town rules relaxation, South Hams says Yes!

So now what?

“Planners at South Hams District Council have voted in favour of allowing the developers of the new town of Sherford more flexibility in the way they build houses at the site.

A strict set of rules known as the ‘town code’ – affecting things like architectural style, where people park and how streets are laid out, will be replaced with a less rigid set of guiding principles.

Last week Plymouth City Council voted against the changes out of concern that future houses would not be built to high enough design standards.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-devon-40725650

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2 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

“Care homes face ‘huge shortfall’ in available beds” and more beds will be needed in hospitals!

“Up to 3,000 elderly people will not be able to get beds in UK care homes by the end of next year, research suggests.

Research commissioned by BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme reveals a huge shortfall in the number of beds available.

Increasing demand from an ageing population could see that grow to more than 70,000 beds in nine years’ time.

The Department of Health said local authorities in England had been given an extra £2bn to help fund social care.

But in the past three years one in 20 UK care home beds has closed, and research suggests not enough are being added to fill the gap. …

The research, carried out by property consultants JLL, found that since 2002 an average of 7,000 new care home beds had opened in the UK every year, but by 2026 there would be an additional 14,000 people needing residential care home places per year.

Lead researcher James Kingdom said: “We’re currently building half the number of care home beds every year that we need.”

“There are more people living longer.

“We know that over the course of the next decade there is going to be 2.5 million more over-65s, and as a result that means there is going to be demand for care home beds.

“To fix that, we need to double the rate of delivery”. …

In the past three years, 21,500 care beds have closed in the UK.

People in the care industry worry that as bed capacity decreases and demand increases, there will be more pressure on NHS beds as elderly people are admitted to hospital because they can’t cope at home.

The government estimates this already costs the NHS in England £900m a year.
Pete Calveley, from Barchester Health Care, said it was an increasing feature of the health and social care environment because there was not enough capacity in the community.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40791919