… but they didn’t publish my letter in reply to Cllr Paul Diviani’s comments about the CCG and the NHS
Here is what I sent in:
‘Cllr Paul Diviani, Conservative Leader of East Devon District Council (Midweek Herald, 23 August) says that complaints about his role in Devon County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee are “entirely politically motivated”. This comment insults everyone who hoped that the Committee – the only local democratic body with power to decide about the decisions of NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group – would help save the beds in Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton hospitals.
‘A few months back, Cllr Diviani appeared to understand people’s concerns. On 16 April he even gave £50 towards a judicial review of the Honiton closure, writing, “If they persist in this drastic action we will all be the worse for it.” But at the time, Cllr Diviani’s party faced elections.
‘Now he feels free to show his true colours, betraying his Council’s stated policy and casting the decisive vote which blocks any reference of the hospital closures to the Secretary of State. He said that this would be pointless, because the closures were Jeremy Hunt’s own policy. However he knows that a referral would have required Mr Hunt to decide whether the matter should be examined by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, potentially leading to a reversal of the CCG’s policy.
‘Cllr Diviani also attacks “the tendency to assume … that the Government will keep throwing money at the NHS as they always have in the past.” He forgets that only fifteen months ago leading members of his party, such as Boris Johnson, promised no less than £350 million a week extra for the NHS.
‘We now know that this promise was a fraud, but the NHS’s need for extra money is real. The Royal College of Physicians estimates that it requires 4% extra in real terms per year, due to our growing and ageing population and advances in medicine. Most of this money would still be needed even if we could save the extra managerial costs caused by the Government’s NHS reorganisation, which created the CCG and other new quangos. However according to Sir Simon Stevens, Head of NHS England, the Government has made no real increase at all in the NHS budget for 2017-18 and 2018-19. This is the underlying reason for NEW Devon CCG’s financial crisis, for the sake of which they are sacrificing our community hospitals.
‘East Devon residents expect the leader of EDDC to stand up for us, not ignore our views. Cllr Diviani has confirmed that it is he who is politically motivated, putting the Conservative Government before justice for local communities.’
Independent councillors are proposing a motion of no confidence in Cllr Diviani at EDDC on 13 September.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 
August 30, 2017 at 11:16 am
Judging by this week’s letters page, the View is the paper to use. James
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August 30, 2017 at 3:35 pm
This is Thatcher’s legacy, along with the social cleansing and making welfare in to a system of endless hurdles and bureaucratic pitfalls so claimants can’t help but get benefits stopped by sanctions. Plus closure of health service delivery so anybody without private insurance will have to wait ages and travel out of area if they are ever to get the treatment they need. Also closure of police stations so many small towns will be lucky to get any long distance police cover. This will cause escalations in petty crime in rural areas. We also have a very soft, judicial system and local ‘authority’ now that thinks giving repeat petty offenders and anti social tenants a stern letter is being firm with them. The whole situation is a recipe for disaster but the big picture is really about the wealthy people with power destroying the lives and living resources of the poor, and wherever possible eradicating them from wealthy peoples living space.
I see so many similarities between life in East Devon today and how it must have been living in 1930’s Germany witnessing the creeping rise of the Nazi ideology. Diviani and his kind want to turn small east devon towns and villages in to sterile little elitist enclaves where any poorer people can’t survive, or if they do, they would find it incredible hard within the bullying and futile welfare system. Also they are highly unlikely to ever find any sort of employment worth commuting to and doing. there is unlikely to be any public transport that could assist in commuting. They would have difficulty trying to find and access any NHS support and chemists, dentists etc. No local schools for their children. No food banks. Any anti-social tenants near them will be allowed to do as they like which would help the local authorities agenda in keeping any capable workers from settling in social housing and becoming established. It’s not a nice picture but I have a sense that this is where Tory ideology is leading us. I recently managed to get the hell out of East Devon and on to better things and a much better life, so you could say I am also a victim of this Tory ideology, although I was able to utilise a great deal of my own personal choice in how I got out and on to better things. Many poor people in East Devon will not have so much free choice in the future if 1930’s Germany is anything to go by.
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September 6, 2017 at 9:10 am
[…] slightly abridged version of my reply to Cllr Diviani is published in today’s Midweek Herald […]
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