Eight bay beaches had sewage warnings at the weekend

Torbay Council’s Conservative administration is being urged to think again after turning down a call to hold the government and South West Water to account for sewage pollution at sea.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

The call, from the council’s Liberal Democrat leader Steve Darling (Barton with Watcombe), follows a weekend during which Surfers Against Sewage named 37 Devon beaches where sewage was already in the sea or likely to be discharged.

They included some of the bay’s showcase holiday beaches including Meadfoot, Beacon Cove, Torre Abbey, Hollicombe, Preston Sands, Paignton Sands, Goodrington and St Mary’s Bay. 

Cllr Darling, who is also the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Torbay, said: “It is shameful how the Conservatives are wilfully blind to this continuing blight on our waters in the bay. As someone who loves sea swimming, I believe with a passion that we need to be holding the government and South West Water to account on this matter.”

The council was asked at its overview and scrutiny board meeting on July 5 to undertake a spotlight review of sea pollution and demand answers from the government and the water company, but the motion was not passed.

Now Cllr Darling will ask again, this time at a meeting of the full council on Thursday 20 July.

His question to the council’s Tory leadership says: “This dumping is poor publicity that Torbay could do without at the start of the school holidays.

Residents and visitors should have clean waters to enjoy.

“Do you agree that it was a poor judgement not to agree to undertake a bespoke spotlight review that would have held South West Water and the government to account on pollution of our seas that is significantly impacting on Torbay’s aspiration to become the premier resort in the UK?

“And do you agree that in light of this, a spotlight review should be undertaken as a matter of urgency by Torbay Council’s overview and scrutiny board?”

Private equity takeovers of health services worldwide are associated with worse quality of care and higher costs, according to the largest study of its kind.

Andrew Gregory www.theguardian.com 

In the past decade, private equity firms have increasingly invested in, acquired and consolidated healthcare facilities. Globally, healthcare buyouts have exceeded £157bn since 2021 alone.

Despite much speculation, evidence about the impact of this rapidly growing global trend has been lacking.

Now a systematic review of private equity healthcare service takeovers across eight countries including the US, UK, Sweden and the Netherlands provides it. Private equity (PE) ownership of healthcare services including hospitals and nursing homes is linked to a harmful effect on cost and quality of care, suggests the review published in the BMJ medical journal.

The authors of the review, which was led by the University of Chicago, said: “The most unequivocal evidence points to PE being associated with an increase in healthcare costs. Evidence across studies also suggests mixed impacts of PE ownership on healthcare quality, with greater evidence that PE ownership might degrade quality in some capacity rather than improve it.”

No consistently beneficial effects of private equity ownership were identified, the researchers said. “The current body of evidence is robust enough to confirm that PE ownership is a consequential and increasingly prominent element in healthcare, warranting surveillance, reporting and possibly increased regulation,” they wrote.

The researchers identified 1,778 studies, of which 55 met the inclusion criteria. They looked at the impact of private equity takeovers on costs, quality of care and health outcomes.

Nine of 12 studies revealed higher costs to patients or the funders of healthcare at services owned by such firms, three found no differences, and none showed lower costs.

Private equity ownership was also associated with a mixed to harmful impact on healthcare. Of 27 studies that assessed quality of care, 12 found harmful effects, three found beneficial, nine found mixed – some measures declined, some improved – and three were neutral.

Health outcomes showed beneficial and harmful results, but the volume of studies for this measure was too low for any definitive conclusions to be drawn.

Cat Hobbs, the director of the public ownership campaign group We Own It, said: “This important new study is sadly no surprise. When vital services are privatised, patients get the worst of both worlds: higher costs for worse quality care.

“Private equity firms will always put their duty to make a financial return first – that’s their job. But these incentives are in direct conflict with the public good. Healthcare is not just another investment opportunity. It’s a crucial public service which we all need at some point in our lives.”

She added: “Private equity ownership in the healthcare sector is on the rise fast, and the public need to know the risks it poses to care quality and access.”

David Rowland, the director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, a thinktank, said regulators and politicians needed to “get a grip” of how private equity takeovers impact healthcare.

He said: “How one makes the sizeable returns which these private equity funds require from providing care to a child with learning difficulties, for example, is a question which is never asked either by regulators or politicians. But it is clear from this research that squeezing profit from these types of services can put patients and vulnerable people at risk.”

Dr Tony O’Sullivan, the co-chair of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said the review provided a “screamingly obvious piece of evidence”. Policymakers must prioritise public funding and provision of healthcare if they are to avoid “damaging” consequences for patients, he said.

Shocking urgent concerns have been raised about conditions asylum seekers are said to be enduring while being accommodated in an East Devon hotel. It is claimed some children who have sought refuge at Hampton by Hilton Exeter Airport are malnourished due to ‘inadequate’ and culturally inappropriate food being provided.

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com 

Local councillors have condemned the ‘careless and inappropriate manner’ in which the asylum seekers are being treated following visit to the hotel. They have also raised concerns over medical concerns and transport issues to places such as schools and the doctors due to the hotel’s location. It’s even been alleged that children as young as four are being left to ride the school bus without someone looking after them.

At East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) cabinet meeting last Wednesday, July 12, members discussed the issues being experienced since asylum seekers were placed in the hotel by the Home Office. Since January, the hotel has been closed to hotel guests to accommodate asylum seekers and is said to be reopening again in early 2024.

The minutes of the meeting state that in the public speaking part of the meeting, Aynsley Jones, community hub manager at Cranbrook Education Campus told how 48 students on its roll were seeking asylum. She said following weekly meetings with families and from talking to the children, food was said to be substandard, the menu didn’t change and there was no consideration given to cultural differences.

From the evidence it has gathered, it was said 30 per cent of the children do not eat the food provided at the hotel, with two cases of malnutrition. There were said to be no individual cooking facilities or fridges, which impacted the storage of medication and baby milk, and snacks were provided on a first come first served basis, if issued at all.

It was also claimed 18 per cent of the pupils had severe trauma and through a lack of funds could not be adequately supported, and 21 per cent had potential undiagnosed Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Ms Jones added untrained hotel staff were triaging medical appointments resulting in residents ‘suffering’ and not getting the medical attention they required.

Multiple hotel management changes were said to have resulted in ‘misinformation or fear’. There was said to be no shuttle bus to Exeter or Pinhoe surgery and no provision of over-the-counter medication.

The taxi company being used was claimed to be ‘ineffective’ with an average waiting time of four hours. There was no transport for residents to leave the hotel and no clear complaints procedure.

She concluded there needed to be an independent body to coordinate the wellbeing of the hotel residents and commended the work being done by Refugee Support Devon. She called for a 40-strong volunteer buddy scheme supported by the Pickwell Foundation with financial support from EDDC and others.

Independent councillor Kevin Blakey, who represents the Cranbrook ward, read out a statement during the meeting that had been approved by all three ward members raising their concerns.

He said: “The recommendation is that cabinet endorse measures being taken to ensure the Home Office are accountable for providing adequate feeding and safeguarding of the asylum seekers. This is fine so far as it goes but it does not address the real and urgent matter of the provision of inadequate food for the disparate groups of people occupying the hotel.

“I have been to the hotel, along with Cllr Kim Bloxham and Cllr Jess Bailey, to observe the food service operation. While the residents say that matters have improved with the availability of fresh fruit such as oranges and bananas over the last few weeks; since the local school raised its concerns with us, the main meals remain woefully unappetising to many.

“There was a lack of variety and no provision of fresh vegetables or salads to ensure a healthy and balanced diet. On the occasion we visited, people were taking platefuls of only rice or potatoes, much of which was then thrown away, particularly potatoes that had not had eyes removed before cooking and were pale in colour even though they purported to be roast potatoes.

“Meat is an issue. The small amount served sat in a bland sauce that some of the residents disliked, the remaining residents could not eat it because their faiths do not permit the consumption of red meats. They will not eat the chicken because, according to all those that we spoke to, the meat stinks and they do not believe it is safe or good to eat.

“While there are certainly cultural issues with food at the hotel, we understand that the children are eating all types of foods at the Cranbrook Education Campus which seems to confirm the problem with the quality of the food being shipped in by the current contractor at the hotel.

“MP Simon Jupp has been in touch with the service provider, who told him that they had received no complaints about the food and that all special dietary needs were being met. All the residents we spoke to complained about the food and two people who are diabetic have never been offered food appropriate to their medical needs. Perhaps these complaints have never been expressed to the service provider.

“Some of those we spoke to reported increasing illness and weight loss. In short, many are suffering from malnutrition. This is not about quantity, it is about the quality, nutritional balance and cultural acceptability of what is offered.

“Remember that a significant proportion of the residents are children who need suitably balanced food to grow. The monotonous and unappetising offering currently provided is not working.

“This is not about providing a restaurant experience for the residents. We are not forgetting that all the residents are waiting for their asylum or residency applications to be determined by the Home Office, who will decide whether they have valid reasons to be in the UK.

“Whatever the outcomes of their applications, it is clear to us that while they wait for the Home Office decisions, they should be treated humanely and with respect. The rights and wrongs of how the asylum seekers got here is not a matter for us, but in the 21st century, the UK has no excuse for treating anybody in such a careless and inappropriate manner. East Devon surely cannot permit poor treatment of our guests, whether they are welcome or not.”

Regarding transport issues, it was said that due to the hotel’s ‘isolated location’ residents are reliant on buses or taxis to get to schools or doctors.

Cllr Blakey said: “In the case of school transport, some children as young as four years are travelling without a chaperone which is clearly unacceptable. We suggest that some of the available budget be used to pay for a coordinator to manage all residents’ needs, including transport, health and food requirements so that children can get to and from school with appropriate safeguarding and that transport to doctors can be effectively arranged.”

The Cranbrook councillors stated they are calling for a number of urgent changes, including for the Home Office to cancel the current food supply contract and for it to be provided locally at the same cost, with an emphasis on pulses and fresh vegetables.

It added Cranbrook Education Campus is providing food and even school uniforms with no additional funding which is ‘unsustainable’ and the government should provide additional funding for the extra costs incurred by local schools.

Cllr Blakey said: “EDDC must press the Home Office to make the changes we have suggested. This is a highly emotive matter but I believe the decisions made by Cabinet today should be guided by the humanitarian needs that are pressing here and now. We feel sure you will make the right choices.”

It was added that a grant of £217,500 is available to meet local needs, of which £31,000 has already been earmarked for transport, leaving around £186,000 for other support. Cabinet members agreed to maintain pressure on the Home Office to ensure that asylum seekers in the district are ‘properly fed and safeguarded’ while in its care.

The minutes of the meeting state it was resolved to: “Delegate authority to the director of Finance, Director of Housing, Health & Environment in consultation with the portfolio holder Finance (Assets) and Portfolio Holder Sustainable Homes and Communities, as well Cllrs Bailey, Bloxham and Blakey, to spend up to £217k.

“The spend is to be used for welfare support, transport, kitchens, food contract, healthcare and medication, fridges, hotel management, safeguarding, insurance concerning the use of kitchens and infant food. To send a further letter to the Home Office expressing the council’s ongoing concerns, while still putting pressure on the local MP Simon Jupp to take further action with the Home Office.

“To explore the issues of an off-site meeting and the hiring of a co-ordinator type role.”

In response to the claims made during the meeting, the Home Office has told DevonLive it does not comment on operational arrangements for individual hotels. It assured all asylum seekers in hotels are provided with three meals a day along with snacks and water.

Where concerns are raised about any aspect of the service delivered by the hotel, the Home Office works with the provider to ensure concerns are addressed in a ‘timely manner’. It also said it speaks to accommodation providers about delivery and performance daily, as well as holding formal weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings to ensure contractual obligations are followed.

Weekly food surveys for residents are said to be carried out to account for cultural preferences for food. It was added supported asylum seekers have access to a Migrant Help 24/7 helpline to raise any concerns regards the support they receive and are able to make formal complaints which are followed up.

In catered accommodation, asylum seekers receive £9.58 per week per each household member where eligible, and new mothers are provided with nappy packs and milk.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Despite the number of people arriving in the UK reaching record levels, we continue to provide support for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. Asylum-seekers in receipt of catered accommodation are provided with three meals a day along with snacks and water, and a weekly allowance where eligible.

“The food provided in asylum hotels meets NHS Eatwell standards and responds to all culture and dietary requirements. Where concerns are raised about any aspect of the service delivered in a hotel we work with the provider to ensure these concerns are addressed.”

East Devon MP Simon Jupp said: “I have been actively engaging with Home Office officials and service contractors on their delivery of contingency asylum accommodation at the hotel, including during my visit to the site earlier this month. I will continue to work constructively with all parties involved to resolve ongoing issues.”

Hilton and EDDC have both been approached for a comment.