Seaton & Colyton MATTERS

Shocking that consultants who led the Devon NHS ‘Success Regime’ have been given award for closing community hospital beds by @HSJnews – boasting that they avoided a referral to the Health Secretary

Posted on March 13, 2018

We are trying to move on and secure the best provision of community health services in the Seaton and Honiton areas – in partnership with the RD&E and CCG – after the flawed ‘consultation’ which resulted in our hospitals losing their beds.

However Carnall Farrar, the consultancy set up by Dame Ruth Carnall – who was also the chair of the Orwellian-named Success Regime – has won the Health Service Journal’s Partnership Award as ‘Consultancy of the Year’ for their work including the closure of community beds.

The citation, which does not mention Carnall’s position as chair, says: ‘A key area of work has been reducing the number of fit-to-leave patients in community hospital beds, which would pave the way to reduce beds. This has been achieved through developing community-based models of care, with clinical hubs and health and wellbeing centres.’ – No one seems to have told them that we have yet to see our health and wellbeing centres!

To rub salt into the wound, it concludes: ‘These changes have been managed without referral to the health secretary and with Carnall Farrar standing alongside local leaders at public meetings.’ – If this is what the award is for, surely it should have gone to East Devon Conservatives who scotched the referral? Or did Carnall Farrar do behind-the-scenes deals with our local Tory politicians?

An FoI request showed Carnall Farrar were paid over £600,000 for their work (in addition to Ruth Carnall’s salary). But they have since gained over £6 million for cutting services in Kent!