Following the heavily flawed consultation process carried out by the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust last year the full picture relating to the downgrading of services at Dewsbury & District Hospital is now much clearer. The Trust has been tasked with presenting the horrific Tory cuts to our services with a positive spin. Here is their vision of a “vibrant” hospital at Dewsbury:
• Severely downgraded Accident & Emergency (40% less capacity) • Severely downgraded Maternity Unit (expectant mothers, if you need a Consultant then pack your bags and go to Pinderfields) • Complete closure of our Children’s Ward • Sell-off of numerous Hospital buildings • A 69% reduction in total beds
If the plans go ahead it will mean 250 out of 360 beds removed from our hospital by 2017, with Pinderfields’ bed numbers boosted by only 70 to cover the shortfall. This is a 69% cut in bed numbers at Dewsbury Hospital – these are the Trust’s figures, not ours.
Over the past two years your Labour team has been at the forefront of the battle to save our local services, with our Save Dewsbury Hospital campaign.
Kirklees Labour's Cllr Cathy Scott, a founder member of the campaign, said: “The true scale of the cuts has been hidden at every point in this shambolic consultation. Lengthy and expensive material was produced with no mention of this dramatic reduction to services. It’s quite clear the impact this will have on Dewsbury – it will cost lives.”
Last October, the Wakefield and Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee took the decision to refer the Trust’s plans to the Secretary of State, who will review the plans. The cross-party Committee said it was not convinced that the proposals were in the “best interests” of local people.
Remarkably, with almost 33,000 signatures on our petition to save services, Dewsbury’s part-time MP Simon Reevell openly supports the Trust’s plans. Sadly, Mr Reevell has put politics before people. He has even gone so far as to lobby the Health Secretary, asking him to impose the huge cuts to our hospital without hesitation.
Scrutiny Committee member Cllr Eric Firth said: “A judgement by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected in late March, we will keep local residents updated.”
Reports in the local media have revealed just a glimpse of the crisis that our local NHS services have been plunged into by the Tory government.
In December a local man asked a paramedic why an emergency ambulance had taken so long. The paramedic replied: “Why don’t you ask your MP?”
Cllr Karen Rowling said: “Our sources within the Trust and our Hospital all say the same thing; staff are being stretched to breaking point and morale is at rock bottom.”
In January a Freedom of Information request from your Labour team revealed that last year the Trust was forced to spend £2.3million on highly paid, temporary A&E locums, a 50% increase since 2010. This is symptomatic of a management crisis. This has been brought about by radical Tory re-organisations, arguably designed to lay the foundations for mass privatisation of our NHS.
Cathy said: “We all want to save money in public services, but this gross waste has been brought about by Tory cuts and bureaucratic meddling. The same work could be done by permanent staff at a fraction of the cost.”
The figures also show that our local A&E departments were the fifth busiest in the country in January. With waiting times rocketing up past FOUR HOURS David Cameron and his Dewsbury MP Simon Reevell still believe that Dewsbury Hospital should see a beds reduction of 69%.
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