Time for a proper consultation on our future health needs

FOR many months Stockport NHS Watch has been trying to draw attention to the folly of the reorganisation of health and social care in the borough known as Stockport Together.

Recent ‘listening’ or ‘pre-consultation’ events have been held for the public, but these have been limited in their purpose because key information about the changes and their impact is not being shared and thus the public is not informed enough to ask critical questions.

With a few honourable exceptions our local councillors and members of the clinical commissioning group all seem to have been issued with rose tinted spectacles, thus leading to a lack of democratic accountability for such a major change to the structure of an institution we value above all else in our country, the National Health Service.

There is much evidence from around the country that more and more NHS services are being privatised. This is where we fear the changes in Stockport are heading.

There are aspects of Stockport Together which address the needs of a modern health service.

However, the resources for such changes fall short of requirements in terms of staffing. There are shortages of GPs, hospital doctors, nurses and community care workers.

There is a lack of good quality social and residential care for our increasingly older population and that, coupled with a potential threat to our local hospital, Stepping Hill, in terms of bed closures, makes Stockport Together’s claim for improved care for older people sound rather hollow.

There is a lack of money. Despite the fact that we already spend a lower proportion of our GDP on the health services than other major European countries, central government funding is still being reduced.

Stockport Together’s own risk assessment of the changes puts the risk at very high.

Isn’t it time we had a proper consultation on what the future might hold and more transparency from those charged with deciding our future health care? Andy Wedderburn acting chair, Stockport NHS Watch

PARKING COST IS DISGRACEFUL

I AM absolutely disgusted at the cost of parking at Stockport train station.

I couldn’t have imagined that the charges for parking after four hours jumps from £6 to £15.50. I went over by 20 minutes and it’s cost an extra £9.50! THIS IS DISGRACEFUL.

This is Stockport, not central London or Manchester.

I will never use NCP parking facilities ever again and I will urge everyone I know never to use them either.

I feel like I need to report this as a robbery.

Whoever is in charge of setting these daylight robbery charges ought to be ashamed of themselves. Neil Burnett Stockport

NOT IN CHARGE OF COUNCIL

YOUR anonymous correspondent on last week’s letters page seems to think I am in charge of Stockport Council.

Sadly, he/she is very much mistaken. Stockport currently has a minority Labour administration, informally supported by the Conservatives and I lead the official, Liberal Democrat opposition.

So it is the Labour leadership of the council that must take the credit/ responsibility for the current problems.

In fact, I have been a persistent critic of the arrangements for the A6 road closure, believing that the council could and should have done more to insist on late night and weekend working by the contractors to ensure faster progress.

However, the key point that ‘anonymous’ seems not to have grasped is that the A6 closure is a temporary measure, scheduled to last for three months.

This will cause widespread inconvenience, hence my earlier complaints to the council, but it is only a short-term issue.

The construction of nearly 2,000 houses on the greenbelt at Handforth Dean opposite Marks & Spencer will, of course, be a permanent feature and it is the permanent impact of all the additional traffic on our roads that is troubling local residents so much.

The A34 is jammed now at peak times and the consequences of this new development by Conservative-led East Cheshire council really will make a bad situation even worse.

I hope that, on reflection, ‘anonymous’ will see that the two issues are not comparable and that, far from being culpable for the problems, I and my Lib Dem colleagues have been consistent in speaking up for local people and highlighting their understandable concerns. Councillor Mark Hunter leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Stockport Council