Stafford hospital's future

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
blueboy21 said:
Unlikelysuspect said:
This letter is not for public oversight. Please don't post it to other local forums, discuss it with friends or email it to newspapers.
How did you get hold of this letter and what else are they planning?
Probably best not to answer the first part, but the second question is interesting - it's our money that they're planning to use to do whatever they decide to do, after all..
 

speak65

Well-Known Forumite
Withnail said:
wizzard said:
... if you want to keep something "local", then don't post it on here, non forum members will see it.
Unlikelysuspect said:
Please don't post it to other local forums, discuss it with friends or email it to newspapers.
I may be wrong - it would not be the first time - but i think people are rather missing the point.

I for one have just emailed it to the Guardian...
+1
 

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
Unlikelysuspect said:
This letter is not for public oversight. Please don't post it to other local forums, discuss it with friends or email it to newspapers.
Well done. Good luck and I hope you remain an unlikely suspect.
 

Nicedave

Well-Known Forumite
ExiledInStaffers said:
joshua said:
ExiledInStaffers said:
Predictable outcome really. Pretty certain on an older thread it was discussed that Stafford hospital would become a community hospital no longer performing emergency care or major operations. The irony of the well meaning cure the nhs campaign eh?
If it means that there will be no more unnecessary deaths and that patients are treated with respect and compassion then i do not care about that accursed hospitals status.

We spend too much time chasing targets and loose sight of the real reason: to care for people.
You would care when being rushed to burton in the back of an ambulance as there will be no A+E. You will care when an elderly relative ends up in north staffs and their partner spends a fortune on taxis to visit. Losing a fully functioning hospital will be damaging to Stafford.
Stafford hospital WAS a disgrace and those responsible should be thoroughly ashamed of how they let this happen

But the situation could not go on

I want my elderly relative (and in fact any elderly person) to receive the BEST treatment available in a caring,compassionate respectful environment
 

Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt

Well-Known Forumite
None of this is really much of a surprise. The uncomfortable truth is that this Country is in a huge debt hole and the NHS is part of that debt hole. The cost of treatment, drugs and elderly care continue to only go in one direction and at an alarming pace. Whether we like it or not there has to be reform, we can't go on like this.
Some hospitals will close, some will rationalise services so that they offer one type of care but not something else. It is highly likely that Stafford Hospital will continue (given the size of the town and the projection for housing and population growth) but in a slimmed down form. It will offer community care, midwifery and that sort of thing but I can't see it having a future in terms of emergency care or operations.
Of course we would all like a first class hospital that we could all walk to that offers every type of care on tap whenever we require it but it just isn't reality. Other hospitals will face the same, it is just that Stafford PCT is near the top of the "hit list" due to its well publicised problems

We are broke folks and a broke Country can't afford expensive, inefficient public services
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
blueboy21 said:
Unlikelysuspect said:
This letter is not for public oversight. Please don't post it to other local forums, discuss it with friends or email it to newspapers.
How did you get hold of this letter and what else are they planning?
Call me suspicious... But as a first post that does strike me as maybe someone trying to find out who in their organisation leaked some information. (if that happens not to be the case then my apologies)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've just received Jeremy Lefroy's newsletter.

Jeremy Lefroy said:
The decision as to when to reopen the A&E department at Stafford Hospital full time will be taken at the March meeting of the Trust board. The Hospital has successfully recruited the consultants needed and is continuing to recruit middle grade doctors. An intense training programme is also in place for clinical staff.

The public meeting held by the Trust in January was well attended and I have asked that these be regular events.

The Trust continues with the work of resolving its large financial deficit (£20 million in 2011/12) and I am supporting it. Sound finances are essential for top quality, sustainable services.
I note that he says when the A&E will re-open - not whether it will...
 

blueboy21

Newbie
henryscat said:
blueboy21 said:
Unlikelysuspect said:
This letter is not for public oversight. Please don't post it to other local forums, discuss it with friends or email it to newspapers.
How did you get hold of this letter and what else are they planning?
Call me suspicious... But as a first post that does strike me as maybe someone trying to find out who in their organisation leaked some information. (if that happens not to be the case then my apologies)
I'm just really concerned as I have family using the Hospital and I want to know what else is being decided without the public knowing?
 

Goldstyle Limousines

Active Member
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Trusts-plan-amp-E-shut-night/story-15281354-detail/story.html

not sure if done link correct but see they are now saying A&E closed at night to be permanent
 

Goldstyle Limousines

Active Member
blueboy21 said:
henryscat said:
blueboy21 said:
How did you get hold of this letter and what else are they planning?
Call me suspicious... But as a first post that does strike me as maybe someone trying to find out who in their organisation leaked some information. (if that happens not to be the case then my apologies)
I'm just really concerned as I have family using the Hospital and I want to know what else is being decided without the public knowing?
Know what you mean, have to use this hospital for my wifes treatment every 2 - 3 months after being transfered from stoke hospital.
 

United57

Well-Known Forumite
Floss67 said:
Did anyone see central news about the leaked letter?
There are a number of questions I would like to ask of our local GP's

1. How many of you raised actual concerns about the hospital previously?

2. You may have the right in the future ( actually may never become law) to buy services on our behalf but most of us would like those services local to where we live.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Floss67 said:
Did anyone see central news about the leaked letter?
No i didn't - i looked through the programme on-line but it wasn't mentioned in the one that was available unless it was after the weather, i had to stop before that point - that weather-geezer does my head in.

So the obvious questions are;

a) What did they say on the news?
b) Who sent a copy of the email to Central news?
 

Floss

Well-Known Forumite
It revealed there had been a leaked letter and that the following is what is recommended for the future of the hospital-

Diagnostics will take place in the form of a clinic based at the hospital but run by drs from Wolverhampton, Stoke and Walsall.
The maternity ward would be led my midwives but there wouldn't be opportunitis for specialist births ( I expect that means no emergency cesaerians)
no surgery will take place at the hospital in general.
There would be a minor injuries and fracture clinic.

Changes will start to take place in October, where the future will be decided.

It didn't say anything about the current or future situation of the A n E department.
Nor did it mention where the letter came from!

I guess unless the person who leaked the letter has any further information it's a case of watch this space!
 

VirtualCynic

A few posts under my belt
Well this appears to refer to the letter in question...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-17095086

As someone who works at the hospital in one of the supposedly potentially affected departments, I don't think that some of these measures will be implemented. Or can be. This letter is just a list of recommendations, nothing more.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
'Just' a list of recommendations, maybe, but a list of recommendations from those that will be in charge of commissioning services if the NHS bill is passed. Essentially it is saying, if it was up to them, as it may well be soon, they will only pay Mid Staffs for the four services outlined, and look elsewhere for everything else.

It is certainly not a done deal, but thanks must go to Unlikelysuspect for making public what our GPs plan for us...
 

Moley

Well-Known Forumite
This has been on the cards for along time now and there were rumours of it well before Summara left. It is not a viable hospital and in general the care is hit and miss, positive experiences of the place are purely based on luck and how busy, how well staffed any department providing the care is at the time. The problem is no one wants to work there. They struggle every year to meet their quota for newly qualified doctors and basically the dregs of the uk and the rest of the world end up working there in general, there are still some good docs working there. There is currently a job freeze and they are making redundancies, morale is the lowest it has ever been. The amount of staff suspended is chronic, even more the amount off long term sick.

Stafford Hospital is dieing, Antony Summara spent the budget of Luxemborg trying to turn the place around executing anyone who got in his way. Now the hospital is massively in the red. Me personally, I hate the place with all my heart and soul, what it has done to me and family over the last 4 years is enough to send anyone below a train. Half the staff who work there refuse to be treated in the place.

Yes I know there are still decent people who work there and I have every ounce of empathy for them, but no one can challenge my view point on the place because I know exactly what is going on.

Phew, that was heavy
 

gilesjuk

Well-Known Forumite
A hospital is only as good as the staff. It is the staff and management which is lacking. The building and tools aren't to blame.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Moley said:
This has been on the cards for along time now and there were rumours of it well before Summara left. It is not a viable hospital and in general the care is hit and miss, positive experiences of the place are purely based on luck and how busy, how well staffed any department providing the care is at the time.
This is something that people really need to think about. Everybody would like to see a viable hospital survive in Stafford but surely not at any cost. If the choice were reduced down to being a) treated badly in a convenient location, or b) treated well in an inconvenient one, i’m guessing most people would go for option b).

Interesting (as always) Medicine Balls in the Eye, asking why Cameron has ‘decided to go to war’ with the NHS, which poses relevant questions to the viability of Stafford Hospital;

M.D. said:
Labour’s massive drive for “world-class commissioning” was a belly flop, not because frontline staff were excluded, but because the NHS doesn’t measure and compare outcomes to allow meaningful choices. If you buy a suit, you can feel the width and take it back if it falls apart. It’s harder to do that with a breast implant. So the NHS just buys the cheapest and hopes it doesn’t burst. The PIP scandal is an extreme example of what happens when you compete on cost … without paying attention to quality…
…If the NHS is going to compete, it has to compete on getting patients better, not balancing the books by fobbing breast cancer patients off with cheap silicon meant for mattresses.
Now for ‘cost’ read ‘convenience’. Emotive as the whole issue is for the people of Stafford, the leaked letter posted by Unlikelysuspect essentially exposes the doubts the CCG’s have about the ability of the hospital to provide care outside of the four areas outlined. Much as we would like it to be able to ‘compete’, if it can’t then what is the point of supporting it? It would be great to have a fully functioning hospital on our doorstep, but as Moley points out, if the people who work there wouldn’t want to be treated there, then why on earth would you?

I’d just like to add on the following paragraph from M.D.’s article, it might remind you of someone;

Measuring (outcomes) is not the only solution. An open, transparent culture that ensures management act on poor outcomes rather than deny it, as in Mid Staffs, is equally vital. At present, the best smoke alarm in the NHS is patients, relatives and staff speaking up when they encounter appalling care, yet the brutal suppression of whistleblowers (Eyes passim ad nauseam) shows how much NHS culture needs to change.
 
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