Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for health, is trying to sneak through a law which will give him the power to quickly close any local hospital without listening to local people and therefore none of our Hospitals are safe.The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn in Norfolk, is a particular case in point. It has seen routine procedures moved to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital as well as Path services for blood testing being transferred there. Bit by bit this local hospital is having its core services cut away. This leads to a reduction in functions and makes it vulnerable to losing its general hospital status. If this happens it will lose its A&E service completely. It has also come my attention that GPs are being advised not to send patients via A&E but to refer them direct to the relevant departments. This leads to lower footfall through A&E which gives another excuse to withdraw the A&E function as it would then be seen as unnecessary.This is happening and unless the people of Kings Lynn stand up and take action they will find that they are left with a cottage hospital and are being forced to travel to Norwich or Peterborough to get treatment. This would potentially be an 80 mile round trip for patients & visiting relatives. The costs involved in that would be astronomical. Not only that, but those without personal transport would be forced on to a poor and underfunded public transport system; a transport system which doesnt even include a direct rail service to Norwich, which is the nearest major city to Kings Lynn.What if you have to visit a loved one every day and have to use your car, or the dilapidated bus and rail system?The TelegraphFancy an emergency trip to your local hospital 40 miles away in this?Jeremy Hunt doesnt care whether you suffer... He is to well paid to make sure you doThe time and financial impact on already stretched personal budgets would be incredibly damaging.Its also worth remembering that both Norwich and Peterborough are PFI hospitals with huge debts. Travelling to and being treated at either of them will see those hospitals getting extra income to pay to their private investors.A study of NHS foundation trusts in England has found the number of those in financial trouble has nearly doubled in a year from 21 to 39. Jeremy Hunt has shown before he’s willing to close good hospitals to bail out ones which are struggling; this law would allow him to do this, even if local patients and doctors were strongly against it.Jeremy hunt is challenging the people again after losing twice in court through his attempts in trying to close Lewisham Hospital against the wishes of local people, doctors and nurses. This drastic new element, the hospital closure clause of the Care Bill, will give the government the power to shut down any hospital, in as little as 40 days in some cases, regardless of how well the hospital is performing.It’s just under a week until MPs vote to bring this sinister threat into a reality.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 05:48:08 +0000
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