Time for a review of local NHS decisions

IN recent years, the NHS in the South West seems to have pursued a relentless policy of closing local community hospitals.

In South Devon, in the last few years, I know of the closure of about 100 beds in hospitals in Dartmouth, Paignton and now Teignmouth – there are probably others. At the same time, the larger district hospitals, such as Torbay, have been under great pressure – they have found it difficult to discharge patients and our regional TV news channels have repeatedly shown ambulances holding patients, sometimes for hours, while waiting for admission to A&E. The local Clinical Commissioning Group will of course dismiss these issues as being Covid related, but, in fact, the supply problems existed long before the pandemic. The policy does not seem to make sense.

The CCG make a number of claims to support their policy: that the community hospitals are old and uneconomic to run (not always true); that facilities exist in the community, such as nursing and care homes (actually reducing in number every year); that home care is available and better suited to the needs of most people (in reality not always ‘better suited’ and certainly not always available). Our MP,

Anne Marie Morris is, like nearly everybody locally, opposed to the proposals and the previous Secretary of State for Health successfully opposed the closure of a community hospital in his constituency – lauding the immense value of community hospitals.

So, may I ask for your readers’ help on two counts:

1. Has anybody done any well researched analysis on supply and demand of our local NHS services, over, say, the last 10 years? How has the population changed in, for example, South Devon and Torbay – number of people and changes in the age profile? How many hospital/ nursing home/care home beds have been lost during the same period? If the research (independent of the NHS) exists, where can it be found, please? If it does not exist, would it be worth serious study?

2. The NHS – through the CCG – will blame Brexit (possibly true, a significant number of medical and nursing staff did go home to Europe) and they will blame the effects of Covid (but will this particular pandemic be the last? If not, will the problems of supply just continue to grow?). Or, could it be that in our communities with a surfeit of high demand, older people, we are just under-funded – almost an ageist policy? There are important issues here that affect the population of the whole of the South West.

Teignmouth Hospital’s proposed closure is the latest in the line and it could be a most useful test case of the CCG’s policy. The wards in Teignmouth Hospital are closed but the building still exists – indeed, it still provides many important medical and clinical services.

The building is not obsolete, has a fine operating theatre, a very modern audio unit and an up to date physiotherapy suite. It would cost a fraction of the money being proposed to build a new centre, to fully modernise this resource and let it contribute to the local work of the NHS.

So, to my second request for help: Is it now time for the test case – to use our independent legal system to do its own analysis of the hospital closure programme, through a Judicial Review?

If so, would this be a good time to launch a ‘crowdfunding’ appeal to pay the inevitable legal costs?

Who is up to take part in the challenge?

John N Smith (Former Deputy Leader of Devon County Council)