Hospital campaigner accuses local Tories of "cheap political trick"

Image via Dewsbury Reporter

Dewsbury councillor and hospital campaigner Karen Rowling, has accused Kirklees Conservative Group of playing a "cheap political trick" over the issue of Dewsbury & District Hospital.

At yesterday's Full Council, the last before the May elections, Cllrs Robert Light (Conservative, Birstall & Birkinshaw) and Cllr David Hall (Conservative, Liversedge & Gomersal) tried to pass a motion supposedly against the huge downgrade proposed for Dewsbury Hospital.

But when an amendment in the name of hospital campaigner Cllr Karen Rowling (Labour, Dewsbury West) was put forward, Conservative leader Cllr Light and his Deputy, Cllr Hall, instructed their councillors to vote against it. The amended motion passed, with the amendment supported by every other group in the council.

Cllr Rowlng said: "It's a shame that these councillors convictions don't stretch far enough to criticise the disastrous polices that their own party are implementing nationally."

"In the wording of their motion Cllrs Light and Hall wanted to put all the blame on Trust management. It's true that the Trust has suffered from bad management, for a number of years. But to completely omit a mention of the disastrous affect that government policy is having on our NHS is disingenuous in the extreme. It's playing politics."

"My amendment made two modest changes; against mass privatisation of our NHS, and against Clause 119 of the Care Bill, which allows politicians in Westminster to shut hospitals without public consultation. Cllrs Light and Hall immediately instructed all of the Tory councillors to vote down the amendment."
"So can we conclude from this that every Tory councillor in Kirklees agrees with privatisation and is against public consultation?"

"Cllrs Light and Hall, and also Cllr Bolt, have all made noises in the last few weeks as though they are against the massive downgrade of our hospital. But yesterday we learnt that it's all talk. They have used the last Full Council before an election to cast themselves in a caring light, but the reality is there is no substance to what they say. It's a cheap political trick."

"I have been fighting these plans for over two years, alongside many colleagues on the council. I don't remember these three out on the campaign trail."

"The changes being proposed at Dewsbury put peoples lives at risk, and this is what the local Tory party are doing. Local people deserve much, much better."

 

Dewsbury Hospital - How can 33,000 local people be wrong?

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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Cllr Simon Alvy: Campaigning to protect Dewsbury District Hospital

There have been a few letters in the Spen Guardian asking what Local Councillors have done to protect Dewsbury District Hospital. Local peoples concerns are understandable and I think it is important to let you all know I am actively campaigning, not just as a councillor, but as a member of the local community.

Prior to becoming a councillor in May this year I was already speaking out as part of MP Mike Wood's Save Our NHS group and took to the streets at both save our hospital marches in Dewsbury.

Since becoming a councillor I have lobbied the joint health scrutiny panel on behalf of my worried constituents and a local hospital campaign group, attended Clinical Commissioning Group meetings and questioned the chair Dr Kelly about their plans as well as responding via letter to Simon Reevel's bizarre request in the Huddersfield Examiner for the Dewsbury A&E to be closed.

I have done all this for several reasons; as a rugby player I was always lucky enough to have a high quality local A&E to call upon when injured, more recently we have used the services of a consultancy led maternity ward and having a young family draw comfort from having comprehensive hospital services within easy reach. Being able to use our local hospital means  not only having good local service but also the support of family close by which is so important particularly to children and older people.

During my election campaign many people raised the issue of the future of our hospital on the doorstep and no one I spoke to believed it was safe. This why I have and will continue to campaign to safeguard local services.

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