KWASH UPDATE -9th November
The battle to save Worthing and Southlands Hospitals continues and we are nearing the end of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust's Fit for the Future consultation.
The consultation officially closes at 9am on the 14th of November. Please make sure you have responded to the consultation - you can email the PCT on fitforthefuture@westsussexpct.nhs.uk This is your last chance to influence the outcome of the consultation - if you want to save your local hospitals make sure you make your voice heard.
Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals will be holding an all night vigil at Worthing Hospital beginning in the evening of the 13th. Campaigners will then push the famous KWASH hospital bed from the hospital to the headquarters of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust where a petition containing over 100,000 signatures will be handed over to PCT chief executive John Wilderspin.
In the last month the PCT held its last public meeting at the Pavilion Theatre. Campaigners marched through the streets ahead of the meeting in another impressive show of support for the campaign. The questions at the meeting clearly showed the strength of local feeling and once again emphasised to health bosses that people do not want their excellent local hospitals to be downgraded.
This was a message also rammed home to the Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson and Prime Minister Gordon Brown as campaigners took to the streets in Westminster, again pushing the famous KWASH hospital bed.
Campaigners pushed the bed down Millbank in Westminster, past Big Ben and the House of Commons. They then protested outside the Department of Health headquarters in Whitehall and in front of the gates to 10 Downing Street as seen in the picture.
A certificate showing the number of peition signatures collected was handed in to both the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister.
Tim is encouraging as many people as possible to still respond to the consultation. He said: "Make sure you get your response in before 9am on November 14th. Every letter, every view really does count. The time to make the difference is now. Please make sure you don't leave it to others. Write, phone or email and make your voice heard."
Against this background, there are signs that the PCT is now listening to what the clinicians at Worthing and Southlands have been saying all along - that the clinicians have other proposals to put forward, ones that are in the best interests of patients. For the last few weeks discussion have been taking place that will potentially see a fuller range of emergency services kept at both Worthing and Chichester. Those discussions are ongoing and are welcome.
All the way through this battle campaigners have urged the PCT to open this genuine dialogue with the clinicians and at last it has happened. New proposals will be put to the PCT but finally there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
For more information please visit www.kwash.org.uk
KWASH UPDATE -4th October
There is now only a month and a half to go before the end of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust's Fit for the Future public consultation and it is absolutely vital that everyone gets their objections to the PCT by November 14.
I expect many if not most of you will have been keeping up to date with the ongoing Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign. So many of you have written, emailed, telephoned, signed the petition, marched and attended one of the many public meetings that the PCT can be in no doubt as to the strength of feeling there is out there.
The consultation document only contains 3 options, 2 of which would see Worthing & Southlands Hospital downgraded with the loss vital services including consultant-led emergency and maternity services, paediatrics and intensive care. This is just wrong and I need each and every person out there to sign the petition at www.kwash.org.uk and write to the PCT at NHS Fit for the Future, FREEPOST SEA1064, West Sussex PCT The Causeway Goring-by-Sea, Worthing West Sussex BN12 6ZZ
Make no mistake. What is being proposed are big cuts to your local health service. If Worthing is downgraded you will have to travel further for treatment in an emergency. If the downgrading goes ahead and you or a member of your family is having a baby you may have to travel to a new baby factory in Brighton. The Worthing maternity unit is one of the best and safest in the country - to even think about downgrading it is utter madness.
The PCT and the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority also say the length of time it takes to for an ambulance to get you to hospital in an emergency does not make a difference to whether you live or die. That is clearly not true - a recent study shows that ambulance travel times are directly linked to chances of survival.
The PCT have completely ignored the many representations from MPs, councillors, clinical staff and patients that the consultation should include a fourth option whereby there should be at least 2 major hospitals in west Sussex retaining A&E and maternity services. This is a major betrayal of the people of West Sussex and does not bode well that this consultation is a genuine exercise to gauge the views and needs of local people.
There are also serious doubts amongst doctors and other clinicians as to whether the new proposals are safe. The PCT claims it has the support of doctors for their downgrading plans. This is simply not true.
The consultants at Worthing Hospital are against the plans and so far 48 out of 50 GPs who have responded to a survey run by KWASH say they are against the plans as well. We have challenged the PCT to say which clinicians support the cuts. So far they cannot name a single independent clinician.
The KWASH campaign will continue to battle against these cuts but we need your help. Please don't leave it to others, sign the petition, respond to the consultation. There will be a big rally and public meeting on Monday 15 October. Please support us and check the KWASH website and the local press for details.
Tim launches a campaign to Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals - KWASH
Worthing MPs Tim Loughton and Peter Bottomley have launched a 'Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals' website at: www.kwash.org.uk to act as a focal point in the campaign against the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority's attack on local NHS services.
The Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority are in serious financial trouble. The government have said they must deliver savings of around £100 million from the annual NHS budget for the area and that means spending less money on hospital services. They have fixed their sights on Worthing Hospital and it seems likely that they will propose cuts to services like accident and emergency perhaps sooner rather than later.
The MPs are urging as many people as possible to log on to www.kwash.org.uk and sign the online petition to help give them the ammunition they need to fight the cuts.
East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: 'If we can get a huge number of people to sign up in opposition to the plans then we stand a chance of influencing. I am convinced that the authorities have Worthing fixed firmly in their sights for cuts and we must oppose them with mass and overwhelming opposition.
'The strategic health authority have said they want to listen to local people and take their views into account. We need to give them massive opposition and hope that chief executive Candy Morris is as good as her word."
The first deadline the strategic health authority have set for people to register their views as part of the 'Fit for the Future' reorganisation plans is 21 July and the MPs need as many people as possible to sign up in opposition before then.
