CARES review of Primary Care Trust consultation.
Thursday, 09 February 2006
CARES have recently attended a consultation, in Southport, whereby members of the PCT explained the advantages/disadvantages of the recent Strategic Heath Authorities’ proposed merger of PCT’s.
The first surprise was the small number of people attending this meeting as this is a decision which is going to affect EVERYONE in our town.
CARES know that the residents of Southport are concerned about the NHS services so where are their voices? They need to be heard loudly NOW!
The consultation was put together very well and professionally and plenty of time was given for questions and viewpoints. One main point that kept appearing was that the boundaries that have been put forward for this merger should be looked at again before decisions are made.
One major problem that was
identified by Dr Jim Ford was that the existing boundaries of Southport are
artificial Southport is expanding outside its own boundaries into Scarisbrick,
Banks and Ainsdale. The proposed boundaries exclude Ormskirk even though a lot
of our much needed local health services have and are still disappearing to that
particular locality. Also questioned was that if this was a consultation, there
was no option for North Sefton PCT to merge with West Lancs.
The response was that this was not an option,
It was also pointed out that the merger of ambulance services is going to have different boundaries to the proposed health services ones. Will this not cause still more confusion? Rumours presently exist that Southport may be under an area covering West Lancs rather than the Sefton region.
The PCT are fully backing this merger as they believe that this it is the best decision for our town. A few years ago it was thought that the Shield’s Report was the best decision too and just look where that has left our children’s and maternity services? Even the PCT seem to have realised what a complete shambles that idea was.
It was stressed at the meeting that this consultation was about the PCT boundaries NOT the services, but if there is to be a whole change around of administration and managers over the PCT then it WILL affect our services greatly!
A figure of one million pounds was mentioned that may be saved locally for a patient-led NHS. This is said to be reinvested back into our services. A speaker from the audience thanked the PCT for the consultation and inferred that we all know the decisions have ‘already’ been made and that this was merely paying lip service to residents.
This seemed to be the consensus of feeling of the majority attending.
(This report was put together with help from John Lee of the Southport Party.)
CARES thoughts on this important issue
If one million pounds may be saved locally for a patient-led NHS, then reinvested back into our services, CARES say:
“LET’S START WITH OUR BABIES, CHILDREN AND PARENTS TO BE! “ If we are to be, as was stated, “Patient-Led” THEN WE WANT OUR SERVICES BACK, ASAP!
We are not saying we want to take services away from Ormskirk people and we never have but we believe the hospital cannot operate a safe NHS in Southport ‘without’ our local emergency services for the vulnerable in our community, no matter what the authorities say. One day CARES hope common sense will prevail and our much needed services will be returned. CARES will continue to fight for as long as it takes.
We are not going away until this terrible wrong has been rectified for our present and future families.
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