Well, it’s a start. But, of course, it won’t offend EDDC as it is a DCC responsibility!
Category Archives: NHS (local)
Sarah Randall-Johnson says we should “grow our own”
Chair of DCC’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, Sarah Randall-Johnson, appears to think that one solution to the current care crisis is to encourage schools to promote careers in the health service:
“I am challenging schools, the council and other organisations in Devon to help promote working in the health service as a career, to help address the chronic shortage of staff in the NHS, and let’s grow our own.”
Has she stopped to think of the reasons why young people are NOT joining the NHS?
Here are a few:
Chronic underfunding
Changing bursaries for student nurses into loans
Pay freeze on an already low base salary
EU staff leaving in droves and new EU staff refusing to come to the UK leaving local nurses to cope with unsafe conditions
Making hospital staff pay eyewatering charges to park while on shift
Never knowing if your hospital is going to be the next to close
The old Noel Coward song “Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington” might be adapted here.
The original lyrics:
Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your daughter on the stage
The profession is overcrowded
The struggle’s pretty tough
And admitting the fact she’s burning to act
That isn’t quite enough
She’s a nice girl and though her teeth are fairly good
She’s not the type I ever would be eager to engage
I repeat, Mrs. Worthington, sweet Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your daughter on the stage
might now be retitled
“Don’t put your daughter into nursing, Mrs Worthington”
as follows:
Don’t put your daughter into nursing, Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your daughter into nursing
The profession is underpaid
The struggle’s pretty tough
And admitting the fact she’s burning to help
That isn’t quite enough
She’s a nice girl and though her health is fairly good
It’s not the type of job she ever would be eager to do
I repeat, Mrs. Worthington, sweet Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your daughter into nursing
DCC Scrutiny Committee “frustrating” for Seaton and Honiton community hospitals says Seaton DCC councillor
Posted by Martin Shaw, DCC Independent East Devon Alliance councillor for Seaton:
“The Health Scrutiny Committee meeting at County Hall yesterday was incredibly frustrating for the 60 or so supporters of Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton hospitals who attended. It resolved nothing and there will be another meeting before the end of July to consider the matter again (I will tell you when the date is fixed).
You can watch the meeting at https://devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/288543.
The speakers in the public participation at the beginning were good, much better than most of the committee discussion. My speech is at 0.34.50. You may have seen that we also made a good splash on regional TV.
There WAS progress, I think, in pinning down the irrationality of the decision to close Seaton’s beds. Speeches supporting Seaton were made by Martin Pigott, Vice-Chair of Seaton Town Council, Mike McAlpine, Chair of the committee for the Axe Valley Health Hub, Cllr Ian Hall of Axminster, as well as myself.
The issue was picked up on the committee, especially by Cllr Hilary Ackland, who twice challenged Dr Sonja Manton of the CCG on the issue. Manton declined to answer Ackland’s specific question.
I feel we can build on this at the re-run meeting. We also have an opportunity to challenge the CCG (who are answering questions from councillors) at EDDC’s Scrutiny Committee on Thursday at 6pm. EDDC doesn’t have any power but I think we should keep up the pressure on the CCG. I have put down to speak. If anyone else can do it – email Debbie Meakin dmeakin@eastdevon.gov.uk.
Would anyone who can come to this meeting – whether to speak or not – let me know (cllrmartinshaw@gmail.com)?
Thanks to all who came and who sent emails (they really had an effect).
A frustrating day, but further chances on Thursday and in July to challenge the CCG
DCC community hospitals stitch up – part 2
“Councillors have delayed a decision to refer “Orwellian” plans to close hospital beds across Devon to the Health Secretary after a bad-tempered meeting at County Hall.
Placard-waving protesters gathered outside Devon County Council’s Exeter headquarters today to demand that controversial NHS plans be sent to Jeremy Hunt.
Critics of the NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) scheme to close community hospital beds in Exeter, Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton, packed into a meeting of the health scrutiny committee on Monday.
A string of opponents were invited to speak and criticised the CCG for failing to demonstrate how adequate care would be provided in the community.
Independent East Devon Alliance County Councillor for Seaton and Colyton Martin Shaw said the CCG has never made the case for the “unmanageable” and “Orwellian” plan.
Fellow independent councillor for Ottery St Mary Claire Wright told the committee that a raft of assurances had failed to materialise from the CCG despite repeated requests.
Devon County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee had previously objected to the decision by NEW Devon CCG to reduce the number of community hospital beds in Eastern Devon from 143 to 72 and regardless of cost no bed closures be made until it is clear there was sufficient community care provision.”
They said: “If adequate assurances are not given to the above and the issues set out below, the CCG’s decision be referred to the Secretary of State for Health on the grounds that it was not in the in the interests of the health service in the area and the consultation was flawed and there is no clear explanation of what care at home will look like or work and this model has frequently been mixed up with Hospital at Home which is entirely different.
Representatives from the CCG, who were questioned by the committee, asked councillors to work with them locally in a “constructive way” rather than involving Mr Hunt.
A spokeswoman said 200 staff were under consultation as the new plan to provide home care took shape.
However, they failed to satisfy members of the newly-formed committee on 14 separate grounds drawn up by the previous committee prior to the May election.
Ms Wright proposed a motion to refer the matter to the Secretary of State for Health, which was seconded by Liberal Democrat former county council leader Brian Greenslade.
Conservatives on the committee questioned the usefulness of such a referral, a complicated procedure which requires that a fully-financed alternative plan be submitted.
A suggestion by committee chairman Sarah Randall Johnson that a decision on the referral be postponed until September was met with jeering from the public gallery.
Protesters shouted down the move, claiming time is pressing as bed closures have already begun, prompting the chairman to threaten to clear the meeting.
After two hours of debate, an amendment which postponed the decision unto an emergency meeting no later than the end of July was unanimously agreed.
Speaking after the meeting, campaigner Gillian Pritchett, who chairs the group Save Our Hospital Services in Honiton, said she was “totally unhappy” with the decision.
“Beds are being closed, the system is already in place,” she told Devon Live.
“The whole thing is a waste of time as (the CCG) will continue to close beds.”
Ms Wright said the meeting had been “incredibly frustrating”
“There was incontrovertible evidence to refer this to the Secretary of State,” she added.
“Those 14 grounds the committee came up with still stood.”
Sarah Randall-Johnson postpones decision on community hospital bed closures
Apparently, she and other Tory councillors decided her committee didn’t have time to study the CCG’s response to their earlier meeting and the CCG needs more time too.
Stitch-up?
What do you think?
Awaiting more news from independent EDDC councillors Claire Wright (on the committee) and Martin Shaw (newly elected East Devon Alliance DCC councillor).
Chief of “Success Regime” ‘retires’ after a year in the post
Apparently, she said she had always planned to retire at 60.
Did the (Un)Success(ful) Regime know that when they appointed her?
Crucial health meeting at DCC this afternoon
“Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee will today examine the case for closing 72 community beds across Eastern Devon to see whether it can be justified.Back at the March health scrutiny meeting it appeared that a decision had been made in a huge hurry with a large range of important issues left unresolved. See my report of that meeting here –
The Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group has now responded to the proposal I made at the last health scrutiny committee, requiring justification on 14 grounds.
It was agreed at the March committee that if those grounds were not deemed to be satisfactory, then the committee would have the option of referring the decision to the Secretary of State for Health. I have read the paperwork and corresponding related papers and I don’t believe there the slightest justification for the decision to halve the remaining community hospital beds in Eastern Devon.
The meeting is held at County Hall and starts at 2.15pm and will be live webcast here –
https://devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home Here are the agenda papers -http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=429&MId=2581&Ver=4
Source: claire-wright.org
Demonstration against community hospital cuts today 1 pm County Hall
BBC Radio Devon
Posted at
8:42
“Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt may be asked to review the decision to close community hospital beds in east and mid Devon.
The county’s new health and adult care scrutiny committee is discussing the plans to close beds in Honiton, Okehampton, Whipton and Seaton at its meeting today.
Local councillors said they needed assurances over staffing and the future of buildings.”
Seaton’s new DCC East Devon Alliance councillor starts fight for Seaton and Honiton hospital beds
PRESS RELEASE
“On Monday 19 June (2.15), Devon County Council Health Scrutiny Committee will consider the NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group’s responses to 14 questions asked of the CCG by the Committee. If the Committee is not satisfied, it has the legal power to refer the CCG’s decisions to the Secretary of State for Health.
(http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=429&MId=2581&Ver=4)
Seaton and Honiton are the two hospitals which serve my constituents in the Seaton & Colyton Division. Both are slated to lose all their in-patient beds. I have sent the attached 6-page letter to the Chair of the Committee, Cllr Sara Randall Johnson, showing why the the CCG’s replies are inadequate, their decisions still demonstrably flawed, and the Committee should use its power to refer them.
I shall be speaking at the Committee, along with other representatives of the Seaton, Honiton and Axminster communities which are worst affected by these decisions. My main points are:
Plans to halve the numbers of community beds do not take into account that the numbers of older people in Devon will more than double in the next two decades.
East Devon needs more beds than other areas because it has the oldest population in Devon and this will continue to grow.
Community beds are crucial to older patients without transport and when they are distant many relatives will have huge difficulty visiting their loved ones.
Savings from the closures will be small. Both financial logic and CCG planning suggest that the real agenda is to close a number of hospitals.
The CCG’s consultation was flawed because it gave no option to keep Honiton’s beds, and the CCG ignored the stronger support for Seaton from people who responded.
The CCG’s reasons for choosing Sidmouth over Seaton are based on misleading use of evidence about population and age distributions.
The concentration of beds in Tiverton, Sidmouth and Exmouth will leave the eastern margins of East Devon entirely without. The CCG’s claim that this is ‘a more even geographic spread’ is entirely false.
The CCG ignored the fact that Seaton also serves the Axminster area, and has reneged on the commitment it gave when it recently closed Axminster Hospital’s beds, that beds would continue to be available in Seaton.
Communities in the Seaton, Axminster and Honiton are angry about the decision and expect the Health Scrutiny Committee to refer it to the Secretary of State.
We are holding a public meeting in Seaton on Wednesday 14th (7 pm, Marshlands Centre, Harbour Road) to plan the community presence at the Health Scrutiny Committee. I will issue a further press release on Thursday.
Martin Shaw
Independent East Devon Alliance County Councillor for Seaton & Colyton”
“Ordinary people” – millionaires!
“This morning’s BBC Breakfast show contained an absolutely astounding series of interviews about the the Tories’ hated Dementia Tax policy and the state of the NHS.
What the BBC failed to mention during the course of both sections is that their supposedly ‘impartial’ voice of concern for the NHS (a man who the BBC described as ‘loving the NHS’ was actually an ex-Tory Councillor, millionaire property mogul who had worked for a PRIVATE healthcare company for 33 years.
The ex-Tory Councillor was interviewed both as a seemingly ordinary member of the public at 07:25, saying the council had been “phenomenal” when his wife was diagnosed with dementia and needed help, and just an hour later he returned in a pre-recorded segment debating the future of the NHS with a junior Dr who was distraught at the destruction caused the Tory cuts.
The first discussion was about Theresa May’s disgusting dementia tax. The interview starts with another member of the public expressing deep concerns about the cap on social care, saying she is worried that her children will be left with nothing if her or her husband have to go into care.
The conversation then moves on to a man who is referred to just as “Gordon”, and he speaks about his experience of funding care for his wife who he says was diagnosed with dementia in 2009.
The conversation then moves on to a man who is referred to just as “Gordon”, and he speaks about his experience of funding care for his wife who he says was diagnosed with dementia in 2009.
Gordon Maclellan BBCHe says that he found the local council to be “phenomenal” in offering him and his wife support to help fund her care. He goes on to say that he would certainly benefit from the Tories proposals to raise the cap on care costs from £23,000 to £100,000.
Just over an hour later on the same programme, we encounter another interview with the same man, or to give him his full title Dr Gordon Maclellan, who introduces himself as being recently retired.
This time he’s here to talk about the NHS crisis and discuss the best way to fix it with a 33-year-old junior doctor.
Breakfast describes Maclellan as being somebody who “loves the NHS”, and the purpose of the segment is to help people decide which party is best suited to cure the NHS crisis.
Throughout the interview, Gordon consistently uses classic Tory talking points and the usual ridiculous defenses of their carving up of the NHS, at one point he defends the Tories cuts by saying:
“people died in my day too”
So, who is this Gordon Maclellan? And why does he always seem to keen to defend the Tories? …
… Dr Gordon MacLellan worked as a Private Orthopaedic consultant for the Nuffield Health Brentwood Hospital for 33 years.”
Meeting on the future of Honiton Hospital – 13 June 7 pm
Date for your diary:
June 13th – 7pm – Mackarness Hall.
There’ll be a public meeting to let people know the latest on the hospital.
Owl has found Theresa May!
Worry no longer – the mystery of where Mrs May has disappeared to has been solved!
How do we fund the NHS? Well, maybe we could start here
“The High Speed 2 rail link is running billions over budget and likely to be delayed, MPs have warned. They say ministers must set out a realistic timetable for delivering the project, currently expected to cost more than £55bn.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said they were “not convinced” by the current schedule, describing it as “overly ambitious”.
The first phase of HS2, between London and the West Midlands, is due to open in December 2026. But minister and bosses at HS2 Ltd, the company behind the project, are now looking at extending this by a year, MPs said.”
http://news.sky.com/story/hs2-1637bn-over-budget-and-facing-delay-say-mps-10577474
iF HS2 were economically viable private companies would be falling over themselves to fund it and make money from it.
And now with Brexit we really won’t need that cross-Channel connection to those durned foreigners and potential immigrants will we!
Perhaps we could prioritise – first fix the NHS and then, when that’s sorted and working properly for all of us, we can possibly think of funding a 20 minute time-saving on the time between London and Birmingham – more than offset by the 20 minute-plus extra time taken to get to the stations by road due to increasing traffic congestion!
Not to mention that, in the south-west, we will see no benefit whatsover from HS2 – quite the opposite.
Pensioners, disabled and mentally ill scapegoated by Tories in this election?
“The dementia tax betrays the Tories’ underbelly. For a leader who protects our homes and offers our grandchildren hope, it’s got to be Corbyn for us pensioners.
The Conservative manifesto assault on pensioners bore all the hallmarks of Thatcherism – without the competence. Even the U-turn on the “dementia tax” will do little to win back pensioners who’ve been thrown under the bus – the one with £350m a day for the NHS emblazoned on the side – once too often.
Theresa May’s intervention was designed to mollify us oldies, but it did nothing of the sort. There was nothing that made me feel more secure in my home than I had before the whole sorry mess had started.
That the Tories would come after their most loyal supporters wasn’t a shock to me. We’re vulnerable and compliant and, in the past at least, voted Tory out of habit. Even with the extortionate charges for residential care and the drive to force people into buying their hip replacement surgery, pensioners were still set to vote Tory. But the election’s triple whammy – scrapping the triple lock guarantee on our pensions, attacking the winter fuel allowance, and the social care plans that mean vulnerable pensioners could be made homeless – has changed that.
This attack came in a context in which pensioners are increasingly scapegoated. The headlines would have us believe that it’s “bed-blockers” making the NHS grind to a halt. Not Tory cuts. There’s a constant, nasty subtext that, in times of austerity, old people are living too long which is damned inconvenient because we’re expensive to maintain.
The fact that May thought she could get away with this flagrant attack on her most steadfast supporters shows just how out of touch she is. But blaming the vulnerable is a strategy that has worked for the Tories. Deflecting the financial crash away from financial institutions and political failings, and on to the poor, the sick and the old, has allowed the Tories to justify austerity, to say: “It’s not bankers’ bonuses we should be cutting back, it’s the welfare state.”
The elderly, disabled and mentally ill are portrayed in much of the media as shirkers and spongers, so it’s no wonder we’re seen as easy prey.
Pitting the elderly against the young has been a growing and divisive tactic. Our protected state pensions and our dominance in the housing market are cited as causing the financial misery of the younger generation. We have our great big madeira cake and we’re jolly well going to eat it.
The reality is quite different; 1.9 million pensioners live below the poverty line, one in four people over 65 struggle to survive to the end of each month, the waiting list time for elective surgery is anything up to a year, and now, should we need nursing home care, our own homes will be sold to pay for it. Old people are not the cause of the problems of today’s younger generation, they are scapegoats for a social care system that has been made bankrupt by reckless cuts and Tory incompetence.
May’s dementia tax betrayed the underbelly of the nasty party. It has not only abandoned but attacked a generation of citizens, many of whom lived through the second world war and the dire austerity that followed. She would rather steal from her loyal pensioners than ask her friends in the city to pay their fair share. The curtain has been lifted, and we see May as she really is – a reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the palms of the poor to line the pockets of the rich.
This gigantic own goal will be followed by days of grovelling promises to “look after” older people. I may be old but I’m not stupid. Who on earth would trust anything Theresa May now says? I’ve lived through many an election but never in my life have I seen a U-turn on a manifesto pledge before an election has even been won. Incompetence on this scale is unprecedented. If Theresa May can’t get this right, how can we possibly trust her to handle complex Brexit negotiations? … “
Health service underfund: nothing to do with patients, everything to do with politicians
All the more reason to vote for Claire Wright and not Hugo Swire, who voted for the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that created the money-gobbling, privatising internal market (though Blair started PFI as a way of cooking the Treasury’s books).
One reason for East Devon bed closures is that Tiverton Hospital (24 beds) CANNOT be reduced in beds or closed because it would be too expensive to break the PFI contract.
And Owl STILL wants to know if Neil Parish’s new hip is private or NHS.
“Councils and hospital trusts are trying to ditch controversial private finance initiative (PFI) deals as austerity makes them unaffordable.
The long-term deals, which were hugely popular in the 2000s, were used to pay for new schools, hospitals, prisons and roads. They were designed to shift risk to the private sector but were often struck on inflexible terms spanning several decades. Cash-strapped public sector bodies are increasingly trying to escape from PFI deals as the contracts eat up bigger slices of their revenues.
Councils are turning to an obscure arm of the Treasury, the Public Works Loan Board, to refinance debt at a much lower rate — shifting the risk back onto the state. Ending deals also exposes councils to hefty compensation fees.
Deals including a £2.7bn highways contract in Birmingham and a waste contract in Essex are under pressure. An industry adviser said several hospital trusts are trying to unwind PFI deals. “They have to balance shrinking budgets in the near term and the PFIs are increasingly gobbling up their revenues.”
Source: Sunday Times (paywall)
And now the really, really bad news
The DCC health and social care committee chaired by Sarah Randall-Johnson also has on it DCC Councillor Phil Twiss and EDDC representative member Paul Diviani.
Neither has ever been seen at health service cut protest meetings to save threatened hospitals (either in their council or personal capacities) and both known (along with Randall Johnson) for enthusiastically, even possibly zealously, toeing the Tory party line and all gung-ho to give Mrs May their utter devotion. And they had to be dragged kicking and screaming by EDDC Independents to stand up for local services still being viciously cut.
Luckily, we still have Independent Councillor Claire Wright to represent US. And one Independent Claire Wright is worth more than three local slavish Tories!
And now the bad news …
“The Health and Adult Care Committee will scrutinise social care, safeguarding and special needs services for adults alongside the operation of the NHS across Devon.
It will be chaired by Broadclyst Conservative councillor Sara Randall-Johnson with Crediton Liberal Democrat Nick Way as vice chairman.”
SRJ – the EDDC Leader who was deposed at EDDC by Independent Claire Wright and has probably never forgiven her for it;
SRJ – who tried desperately to get the Totnes nomination won by Sarah Woolaston and who has probably never forgiven her for it;
SRJ – who spent £250,000 of taxpayers money opposing what is effectively now “Greater Exeter”
SRJ – whose Tory blood runs deep, deep and brightly shining in her veins.
Thanks, DCC – that’s just what we need.
“The state of rural services” report
“Changes to rural transport provision affect access to a range of service facilities and outlets, where these are not available locally and where travel is necessary. Recent reductions to bus services are therefore of direct relevance to various topics covered by this report.
Similarly, rural access to a range of services is altering due to the provision of and take-up of online services. This has considerable scope to address long standing concerns about rural access to services, if geographic distance is no longer such a barrier. However, this is not straightforward. Not all groups are online, some rural areas await decent (broadband) connectivity and one consequence may be less used physical outlets e.g. bank branches.
The demography of rural areas and, in particular, the growing number of older people has implications for the future of services covered in this report. On the one hand it places considerable extra pressures on public services such as GP surgeries and adult social care, especially if funding for them is tight, as it has been for some years and seems likely to continue being. On the other hand older age groups are more likely to be users of locally based commercial services in rural areas, such as convenience stores, thus helping them to survive. Retired people who remain in good health are also likely to make up a good proportion of the volunteers engaged with providing community-run services. …”
https://ruralengland.org/the-state-of-rural-services-2016-report/
Conservative voter? Worried about the NHS?
Strong …ly weak and stable..y wobbly on home care charges!
Summary: May is panicking … she will say ANYTHING … as long as it REALLY means NOTHING!
What Owl thinks: the bigger your house, the more money you will be able to leave to your relatives. Yeah, that sounds more like a Tory policy!
“Theresa May has refused to say how high the Conservatives’ new cap on social care costs would be, after announcing an unprecedented U-turn on her manifesto plan to remove the limit.
The Prime Minister became increasingly flustered as she faced a barrage of questions from journalists, having seemingly watered down a key element of the Tory manifesto.
Asked by Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick where she would set the limit, Ms May said: “We have not changed the principles of the policy we set out in our manifesto. Those policies remain exactly the same.”
May waters down ‘dementia tax’ in U-turn after poll lead slashed
The Conservative manifesto’s section on social care makes no mention of a cap. Previously the plan had been to introduce an upper limit of £72,000 on the lifetime cost of a person’s care by 2020.
It said a green paper would be drafted to “address system-wide issues to improve the quality of care”.
But Ms May told journalists at the launch of the Welsh Conservatives’ manifesto: “The plans that we set out were very clear in the manifesto, you can look in the manifesto … We said we would issue a green paper and of course within that green paper we’ll be consulting on the details of the proposals.
“Nobody is going to have to pay for their care, nobody is going to have to pay for their care … while they are alive. Nobody is going to have to lose their family home.
“We have not changed the principles we set out in the manifesto.”
She added: “We will have an upper limit, absolute limit, on the amount people will pay for care.”
It came after a pair of polls showed Labour narrowing the gap on the Conservatives to just nine points, following the launch of Ms May’s manifesto.
The Tories’ lead has halved compared to a week ago, according to Survation, with Theresa May’s party on 43 and Labour on 34.
The poll of 1,034 adults was taken over 19 and 20 May and showed people were more likely to say Labour had the best policies for older people and the NHS.
A YouGov poll had Labour on 35 per cent, their highest of the campaign so far, with the Tories on 44 per cent.”
East Devon Watch 