Vaccination fiasco shows NHS doesn’t understand Seaton
I’ve just had to abandon a Covid/flu vaccination appointment at the Tesco car park after waiting an hour, since I’d have to wait another hour before being done. This is despite having an appointment. The core reason for the fiasco is that the NHS grossly underestimated the walk-in demand in the morning, so that people who had waited hours were ahead of the people with timed appointments (there was also a medical emergency which apparently slowed things a little).
All a striking contrast with the orderly vaccination process in Seaton hospital during the pandemic. The NHS obviously just doesn’t understand that 45 per cent of Seaton’s population are over 65 and therefore eligible. They’re trying to do vaccination on the cheap and they are not taking into account that people are rightly still very concerned about catching Covid.
Big step forward for Seaton Wetlands
Well done, Paul Arnott and EDDC, bringing a new area of marshes into the Wetlands.
www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/24625233.east-devon-acquires-land-seaton-wetlands-expansion/
Seaton Museum – Facebook and JustGiving pages launched, tributes to Ted planned
Seaton Museum now has a Facebook page and also a JustGiving page – the Museum needs your support and all donations will be gratefully received.
The AGM of the Axe Valley Heritage Association, which runs the Museum, is on 30 October at 2pm in the United Reformed Church, Cross Street. The Acting curator, Laura Hewitt, will give a report on the future of the museum and I will be giving a tribute to Ted.
Laura has asked me to edit the Museum’s Newsletter and the first issue will be on the Museum’s history, including a full tribute to Ted. I should be very grateful for any anecdotes or suggestions on points to include.
Hugo Swire, who sabotaged Seaton Hospital, uses new perch in Lords to promote community hospitals
Swire obviously thinks we have forgotten. He is the man who, having been MP for Seaton until boundaries changed in 2005, spoke in Parliament in 2016 to say that if beds were kept anywhere, it should be in Sidmouth – leading the CCG to switch Seaton’s beds, which they had originally planned to keep, to our neighbouring town. A key moment in the Seaton Hospital crisis, whose effects we are still dealing with today.
Richard Foord calls debate on trying Putin for aggression in Ukraine
Richard used his position as MP and Lib Dem spokesman to call a special parliamentary debate on the need for a special international tribunal to try Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression, which is a fundamental breach of the UN Charter. All the specific crimes that Russia has committed, and all the disruption to European and world stability that it has caused, come down to this basic crime.
It’s important that initiatives like this are made. You can watch Richard’s speech here.
RD&E: ‘some of our people do not feel safe coming to work’ after racist riots
The CEO and chair of the Royal Devon University Healthcare trust, which runs the RD&E, have felt it necessary to include this unprecedented statement in their latest newsletter:
“Last month saw deplorable violence and intimidation in towns and cities across the UK. We wholeheartedly condemn the deliberate acts of violence and racism that have taken place and we want to make a clear statement about our values and behaviours as an organisation.
“Inclusion is one of our core values and we take pride in having a diverse workforce and a culture that respects everybody. The values we hold, and the behaviours we expect from staff, students, patients and visitors, mean that we will not tolerate discrimination or abuse of any kind.
“Our workforce is made up of talented and committed people from all around the world. Their diversity, expertise and skill are our strength and enable us to provide truly world-class services for people in need in our local communities.
“It has been heartening to see many thousands of people come together to join protests against the violence and racism. But we know that some of our people do not feel safe coming to work and that is unacceptable.
“Our priority is to build a culture at work where our people feel safe, healthy and supported. Whilst we have a wide range of support in place for our people we ask for your help in ensuring that all of our colleagues feel safe and welcome.
“We expect people who use our services to treat those who are caring for them with courtesy, kindness and respect and vice versa. We will take action against those who do not.
“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and respectful community where we can all live and work safely. We believe very strongly that there is no place for hate in our homes, on our streets, in our clinics, in our hospitals, in our NHS or in our country.”
Report damns Lansley ‘reforms’ as ‘calamity’ for the NHS – what does it mean for NHS Property Services and Seaton Hospital?
The government’s new report describes the 2012 Health and Social Care Act (the ‘Lansley reforms’) as ‘a calamity without international precedent’, and says that management systems and structures are ‘still reeling from the turbulent decade’ that it began. It involved a ‘costly and distracting process of almost constant reorganisation’ in the NHS.
Yet the report doesn’t specifically mention NHS Property Services, which was set up as a result of the Act, to which Seaton Hospital was then handed over – beginning all our problems. Richard Foord wrote to the new Health secretary, Wes Streeting, after the election, asking for him to look at the hospital problem – this is surely time for this issue to be looked at by the new government.
Richard Foord votes against winter fuel payment cut
Richard has voted against – as I would have done. Although some pensioners, like me, don’t need the payments, others (apart from people on benefits, who will keep them) will be at risk from rising fuel prices. The state pension remains one of the lowest in Europe, and those without private pensions need the payments. The government should have made the payments taxable, so that they would have saved money from better-off pensioners. There are many people with broader shoulders than the average pensioner
www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/24575984.honiton-sidmouth-mp-votes-winter-fuel-payment-cut/
Seaton Hospital – why we are on hold
This email from Jack Rowland has just gone to Hospital campaign supporters and the press.
Well here we are in mid September and you may be wondering what has been happening with our campaign to utilise the empty wing at Seaton Hospital for the benefit of the community.
You may recall that a steering group was set up as a result of the public meeting held on 3 November last year. At that meeting speakers highlighted the action that may be taken by NHS Property Services (NHSPS) as NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) had been paying £300k per annum in rent and maintenance to NHSPS ever since the wing became empty as a result of the decision made to remove inpatient beds from the site. In view of the financial position of the ICB and the pressure they are under to cut expenditure they had indicated they wanted to stop paying the £300k per annum.
Our steering group has been recognised by NHSPS and the ICB as the body to consult and negotiate with and a timetable was established at the beginning of this year to have monthly meetings starting in February with the agreed target of the steering group producing a business plan by the end of June.
Thanks to the tremendous work carried out by a member of our steering group, Ben Tucker, along with Kirstine House and support from myself a business plan was submitted to NHSPS and the ICB in mid June. In addition to producing the business plan Ben arranged and held meetings with third parties interested in leasing space in the empty wing that also complied with the vision we had for using the space.
As a result of those meetings many of the third parties signed expressions of interest and these were built into the business plan. In order to fund the building works and contribute to the first year running costs we also submitted a grant funding application to the Government backed Community Ownership Fund by their deadline date earlier this year.
So why no further news since the end of June?
Quite simply the calling of the General Election on 4 July and the resulting change of government has put everything on ice in obtaining a definitive response to the business plan and the grant application.
Since July we have been following up on both subjects and we are due to meet NHSPS and the ICB on 19 September. We understand that NHSPS are submitting a paper regarding our business plan to the next board meeting of NHSPS by which time we also hope to have received news on the grant application. However, it appears that many public bodies are waiting for the new Chancellor’s Budget announcement on 30 October and there is a risk that decisions will be delayed until after this.
Jack Rowland
Chair – on behalf of the Seaton Hospital Steering Group
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 