Daily Archives: 15 May 2018

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15 May 2018

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, Honiton/ Gittisham, Neighbourhood Plans, Phil Twiss

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Unbelievable! “Creation of Honiton’s Neighbourhood Plan could be shelved until 2020”

Gobsmacking! Villages such as Feniton and Beer manage to have a quorate Neighbourhood Plan group, so have smaller towns such as Budleigh but Honiton can’t manage it:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/plans-of-other-organisations/made-neighbourhood-plans/

Some really serious questions need to be asked and answered here otherwise Honiton will be descended on by vulture developers for years.

Didn’t Councillor Twiss intimate that he is Honiton’s problem solver …?

“Town councillors were asked to consider a recommendation to shelve the document at a meeting last night because its current steering group is ‘inquorate’ – meaning it is not made up of enough members.

A report submitted to the council by deputy clerk Heloise Marlow said: “A steering group made up of about nine to ten members with one-third councillors and two-thirds community members is essential.

“In view of the lack of past and current interest from the community of Honiton, the officers recommendation is that a neighbourhood plan cannot currently be delivered.

“As such the recommendation would be to put the process on hold for a period of two years.”

As part of the proposal, the town council’s annual budget of £10,000 would be put into earmarked reserves for a maximum of three years, including the financial year 2020-2021.

Research into average costings for a Neighbourhood Plan indicate that funding from the town council in the region of £30,000 would be needed, and there is limited grant funding available.

The deputy clerk’s report added: “Currently there is £1,022 being brought into earmarked reserves which is the balance of the East Devon District Council start up grant.

“In May 2020 when the matter is reviewed, there would be earmarked reserves available of £31,022 and therefore should the drafting of a Neighbourhood Plan over the next two years gather public support, and the decision is taken to revive the process, this would allow funding to be made available immediately.”

Councillor Caroline Kolek said: “I think we all understand the recommendation and I feel we have no option but to go with it.

“Having been involved with the Neighbourhood Plan right from the start, I think it’s really sad that we are at this point.”

Councillors opted to vote on the recommendation at next month’s meeting after Cllr Roy Coombs voice his concerns over the recommendation.

He said: “There’s no deadline but if we had got our Neighbourhood Plan in place now, possibly things could have been done differently over the Halse of Honiton site or the Ottery Moor Lane business park.

“There could be other missed opportunities – if we have not got a Neighbourhood Plan in place it could, I feel, become a developers’ free-for-all.”

Cllr Coombs proposed to defer the item to the council’s June meeting.

His motion was unanimously approved.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/creation-of-honiton-s-neighbourhood-plan-could-be-shelved-until-2020-1-5518228

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15 May 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, Austerity cuts, Inequality, Integrated Care Systems, NHS (local)

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“NHS has lost 1,000 GPs since Jeremy Hunt set workforce target”

Pulse is the newsletter for GPs:

“The GP workforce in England is continuing to decline, as official statistics reveal that 316 full-time equivalent GPs have left the profession in the last three months.

The figures released by NHS Digital today also reveal that the number of FTE GPs in the workforce has decreased more than 1,000 since September 2015 – when health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced he would increase the number of FTE GPs in England by 5,000.

NHS England is recruiting from overseas in a bid to boost GP numbers, but Pulse revealed last month that they had only managed to recruit 85 by April – despite originally touting the figure of 600.

The latest statistics show that in the last three months, the workforce has fallen from 33,890 FTE GPs in December 2017 to 33,574 as of 31 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the workforce is 1,018 GPs worse off than it was in September 2015.

This is despite the success of NHS England’s induction and refresher scheme, which has tempted 546 GPs back into the workforce since its launch in 2015.

The news comes as a Pulse investigation, published earlier this month, showed a steep rise in the number of GPs claiming their pension early. Since 2013, almost 3,000 GPs have claimed their pension before the age of 60.

The BMA has previously warned the Government that continued sub-inflation uplifts to GP pay is going to further exacerbate GP workforce shortages, having asked the independent review body on doctor’s pay to recommend a 2% uplift for 2018/19.

Dr Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s GP Committee, said the latest workforce statistics are ‘extremely concerning’.

He said: ‘It’s more than two and a half years since the health secretary promised to recruit 5,000 more GPs before 2020, and these figures are a damning progress report. With less than two years until this target date, the trend is clearly going the other way and it’s a sign that a step change in action needs to be taken.

‘As GPs struggle with rising demand, increasing workloads and burdensome admin, and are expected to do so with insufficient resources, it’s no surprise that talented doctors are leaving the profession and although the number of GP training places have increased, this is not enough to address the dire recruitment and retention crisis.’

RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: ‘These figures are yet another hammer blow for family doctors, for whom going the extra mile is now the norm, and for our patients. The stark truth is that we are losing GPs at an alarming rate at a time when we need thousands more to deliver the care our patients need, and keep our profession, and the wider NHS, sustainable.

‘It is clear that substantial efforts to increase the GP workforce in England are falling short – and we need urgent action to address this. We have made great strides over the past couple of years encouraging more medical students and foundation doctors to choose general practice, but these efforts will be futile, if more GPs are leaving the profession than entering it.’

She said this comes as ‘GP workload is escalating, both in volume and complexity, and the hardworking GPs we do have are burning out as we try to cope without the resources and support we need’.

‘Longer and longer days in clinic is what our members are telling us they face when they come to work in the morning, exacerbated by a mountain of bureaucracy and paperwork. This isn’t safe for GPs, our teams, or our patients, and if it isn’t tackled GPs will continue to leave the profession early, and new GPs will be put off from joining,’ she added.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the data marked ‘yet another broken promise on NHS staffing from ministers’.

‘It’s an embarrassing failure for the secretary of state that far from delivering the extra GPs primary care desperately need, there are now 1,000 fewer family doctors than in 2015.

‘The truth is that the Tories have failed to bring forward a sustainable long term plan for the NHS. The consequence is the biggest financial squeeze in its 70-year history and a failure to recruit the frontline doctors and nurses we need to care for patients.’

A department of health and social care spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to meeting our objective of recruiting an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020. This is an ambitious target and shows our commitment to growing a strong and sustainable general practice for the future.

‘More than 3,000 GPs have entered training this year, 1,500 new medical school places are being made available by 2019 and NHS England plans to recruit an extra 2,000 overseas doctors in the next three years.’

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/gp-topics/employment/nhs-has-lost-1000-gps-since-hunt-set-workforce-target/20036703.article

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15 May 2018

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Sleaze

“Cambridge councillor claims he can do his job over Skype after moving 400 miles away to Scotland ‘because of Brexit’ “

“A county councillor has faced heavy criticism after moving 400 miles away from his constituency and claiming he “can do his job over Skype”.

Donald Adey, a Cambridge councillor living in Fife, Scotland, also blamed Brexit for the move, saying English people were “too right wing” and not as friendly as the Scottish.

Mr Adey recently resigned from the Liberal Democrats to stand as an independent on both Cambridge city council and Cambridgeshire county council.

His position on each council allows Mr Adey to claim expenses of £14,500 in taxpayer money.

He told the Courier: “I am quite confident that I can well cover the needs of the constituents there by using the internet, phone, Skype and such things.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cambridge-councillor-claims-he-can-do-his-job-over-skype-after-moving-400-miles-away-to-scotland-a3839291.html

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15 May 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, Austerity cuts, Claire Wright, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, Inequality, NHS (local), Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

Claire Wright responds on threat to close Honiton and Seaton hospital day services

“Seaton and Honiton Hospitals may be at risk, local GP and chair of the NEW Devon CCG’s Eastern Locality, Dr Simon Kerr reportedly revealed at a meeting with health campaigners last month.

Dr Kerr was apparently speaking of the long-awaited Estates Strategy, which will list all the assets held by the local NHS and what it plans to do with them.

NEW Devon CCG is in considerable financial difficulty. Devon is one of three most financially challenged health trusts in the country.

The background is that 12 community hospitals across Eastern Devon were acquired by the private company (wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health) NHS Property Services, last year.

As yet, we haven’t heard about the fate of the remaining 10 community hospitals now in the ownership of NHS Property Services. This of course, includes our beloved Ottery Hospital, as well as Exmouth, Sidmouth, Whipton, Okehampton and Crediton.

Many of these hospitals, including Seaton, Honiton, Ottery St Mary and Okehampton and Whipton, have sadly now been stripped of their beds in cost cutting measures. But they still are home to a range of services and clinics that are very much needed locally.

Up until now, NHS England has been picking up the tab for the extortionate rents charged by NHS PS, of well over £3m a year, across the area.

A stupid stupid system, set up to fail. All over the country health trusts are being forced to sell off estate because it can’t afford the ridiculous rents charged by NHS PS for a building that used to be in NHS ownership.

Honiton Hospital has a treatment centre and is home to East Devon’s out of hours GP service.

The idea that the building could be lost and with it the treatment centre and out of hours service is totally ludicrous and appalling. The RD&E’s A&E department is full to capacity much of the time and staff are struggling to manage the volume of patients.

It means someone unwell living in the far east of the area – Axminster, for example, would have to travel around an hour to Exeter, to be seen by a GP if they were unwell out of working hours. It is quite unacceptable.

The amazing maternity unit which has been ‘temporarily’ closed for the best part of a year, was also based at Honiton Hospital.

There are so many cuts to the health service now it is difficult to keep up with them, let alone fight them.

Cllr Shaw has written to the CCG chair, Dr Tim Burke demanding assurances that the buildings remain open.

I have asked for an urgent item on the next Health and Adult Scrutiny Committee agenda, which is held on Thursday 7 June.

I will keep you posted.

Here’s Cllr Shaw’s blog – https://seatonmatters.org/2018/05/14/ccg-chair-says-seaton-and-honiton-hospitals-at-risk-of-closure-in-local-estates-strategy/

http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/seaton_and_honiton_hospitals_at_risk

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15 May 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, Austerity cuts, Honiton/ Gittisham, Inequality, Integrated Care Systems, NHS (local)

“Suspension of birth services at Honiton Hospital extended”

“The suspension of birth services at Honiton maternity unit has been extended.

The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RDE) has today delayed its reintroduction until mid-September 2018.

The Trust took the decision last year to temporarily suspend births and subsequent in-patient stays at Honiton Hospital.

It said the step was taken to maintain patient safety due to a combination of factors affecting the stability of the services at this site and the other units it operates in Tiverton and Exeter.

Zita Martinez, head of midwifery at the RDE, said: “We are sorry for this continued suspension in services. Although we have successfully recruited to a number of our midwifery vacancies, we are still managing a high level of staff absence, including maternity leave.

At the same time, the positively received implementation of national policy in the Better Births and Saving Babies’ Lives guidance has meant that the complexity and acuity of women and babies we are caring for has significantly increased.

“This means that our main maternity unit in Exeter is experiencing greater levels of demand on the specialist care that we provide.

“In the context of increasing complexity, re-opening Honiton maternity unit for births and in-patient stays would result in the Trust stretching our workforce too far and potentially compromising safety in our other delivery units.”

The Trust has agreed with NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group to extend the suspension of births and subsequent in-patient stays at both Honiton and Okehampton until mid-September 2018 in order to ensure the safety of services across a wider geographical footprint and therefore, for more women and babies.

All antenatal and post-natal appointments, support clinics and home births will continue as normal in both communities.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/suspension-of-birth-services-at-honiton-hospital-extended-1-5517432