The stroke service review outcome is a bitter pill for us all to swallow.
I have gleaned from previous experience at Kent County Council that things are not always as they seem. We had a monumental unanimous vote, March 1, where the Health Overview Scrutiny Community, voted to allow the NHS extra time, before acting to refer the decision back to the Secretary of State to respond to the grave concerns we raised. In fact had been raising for many, many months. We had hoped for improvements to the plan and frankly that our communities deeply held fears would be heeded.
That unanimous vote should have given us comfort. It was as if all of Kent’s councillors on that committee had fully heard and understand the worry and insecurity that losing the QEQM stroke unit to Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital had caused the residents of Thanet.
However this delay, created by allowing the NHS more time, coincided with purdah and district council elections. Which in turn meant that the HOSC would meet again only after the deadline for any possible Judicial Review has passed. A JR must be launched within 3 months of the final decision.
This meant, at the request of literally hundreds of residents I have launched a JR. Not an easy process. Thanet’s Community came up trumps raising £5k in five days.
A Judicial Review has duly been submitted, the client is a wonderful women Marion Keppel who knows first hand how vital our local stroke service is. I couldn’t be more personally grateful to her.
On May 21 Marion, Jenny Matterface ex Labour Group leader and myself attended the HOSC together. We wanted to secure a reference back to the Secretary of State.
What a chronic disappointment that meeting was. Councillors Lesley Game and Roz Binks (both Conservative ) and myself asked searching questions, and we ultimately voted to refer this dreadful decision back to the Secretary of State. After all the months of battling, raising awareness, fighting, lobbying, organising public meetings, street stalls, petitions and countless meetings. Our countless hours of effort had come to naught. The vote went against us 7 to 6.
Residents of Thanet have been done a great disservice. QEQM should have been properly considered as a location for a HASU. We were told that there weren’t enough stroke cases in Thanet to meet the ‘competency threshold’ for any stroke consultant. It is necessary for a consultation to see a minimum number of 500 per year. The information that I have pushed for and have received recently scotch’s this.
Stroke rates in East Kent per annum
Thanet 260
Sandwich 23
Deal 61
Herne Bay 135
Blean 12
Wingham 10
Aylesham 15
Canterbury and villages 82
Faversham 44
Total 642
So, as you can see, there are, sadly plenty of strokes. The geographical configuration and location of HASUs could have been drawn up to be fairer to Thanet residents, to better address Thanet’s substantial health inequalities, to support QEQM as an anchor institution (that helps to boost our area economically). I do not think the staff shortages have been adequately addressed. For instance the mission critical workforce shortages, 11,500 GPs, 10,000 paramedics and 42,000 nurses cannot and will not be solved in any local plan. But this must be addressed by central government. And urgently.
I am extremely dissatisfied and disappointed with this decision, I am seeing red.
Looking at those figures for the occurrence of strokes in East Kent, it seems obvious that Thanet should definitely be the site for the most up-to-date Stroke Unit possible. But, in the end, it comes down to what kind of money the government in London is prepared to spend. This week, we are marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in the Second World War. Despite the dreadful financial (and other) costs of that war, and while still paying off debts for the cost of the First War, we created the National Health Service in 1948, and built thousands of Council houses to deal with the housing crisis of the time. Yet we are now told that we need “austerity” because the country has huge debts! So stroke victims must face their fate without a local Stroke Unit in Thanet. We can afford to pay for wars but not for our Health Service. The priorities are wrong.
Well said Keefogs. And Cllr Constantine thank you for all the workwe know you have done on behalf of the people of Thanet. Let’s hope that the Judicial Reviews offer a hopeful change of strategy. The people of Thanet are being forced into a post code lottery for equitabke, accessible and free healthcare. The NHS in Tory hands is merely another source of profiteering.
Perhaps they want the people of Thanet too die ! Then they would not have to payout benefits or am I just being cynical?
Just a bit cynical, Richard. After all, most people in Thanet are not in receipt of Benefits , except, maybe , the Old Age Pension. And , unfortunately, most Thanet voters support the Tories (or the Brexit Party wing of the Tory Party) so the government would not really like too many deaths amongst the local elderly.After all, without grumpy, resentful OAPs, the Tories (whether called Conservatives or The Brexit Party) would be nowhere. I speak as someone in his 60s who still wants change for the better, not a return to a mythical past that never really existed.(I was there and it wasn’t much cop!)
Let’s imagine a world where (like the rest of us) consultants worked 240 days a year. If they have to see a “minimum”of 500 patients, that’s only an average of a little over two a day. How many do they actually need to see to justify their gargantuan salaries?
I too have spent hours & hours fighting for the QEQM. I am so angry at the dishonesty of the NHS hierarchy who held Public Consultations re. setting up HASUs in Kent & Medway and who completely ignored what really happened when their 5 options were overwhelmingly rejected. I made a speech to that effect at Broadstairs followed by a unanimous supporting show of hands. I asked that this be recorded.They ignored that too. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.