PATRICIA Hewitt's new vision for community hospitals was announced last week, stating that the Secretary of State had "listened to patient power" and was reviewing "small cottage hospitals".

This could be very good news for the Westbury health community, who have been probably the most vocal voice of patient power in west Wiltshire, after their excellent hospital was threatened with closure, without consultation, last August.

Since then the Westbury community have shown their disapproval, of a short-sighted and hasty decision by many protests and excellent media coverage, both locally and nationally.

Will the board of the West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust listen to the Secretary of State and to the people of Westbury or will they continue with breathtaking arrogance to ignore the "patient power" so loudly and consistently voiced?

It appears that the Primary Care Trust can only apply for part of the £750 million if they can prove that any new facilities "have the backing of the local people".

The Pathways for Change consultation is now over and we await the results of this sham consultation, with its limited options to choose from, with interest. An independent consultant will analyse the responses but the final decision regarding the way that health care is provided for our community rests with the board of directors.

This is worrying news as this board have proved that they have little insight into the needs of the community they serve and little interest in listening to or engaging with the public in any meaningful ways.

If the PCT can provide proof that their vision of closing all of the community hospitals in west Wiltshire has the support of the community then I feel that we should question again their listening skills and competence at managing our local health services.

Patricia Hewitt goes on to say "PCT's with advanced plans for new community facilities need to submit proposals to the Strategic Health Authority by September 30."

We need to ensure that West Wiltshire PCT do not feel that they fit into this category and will now acknowledge the huge strength of feeling from the communities regarding the loss of the community hospitals and will start on a programme of listening to the public and applying for the funds promised by the Government to refurbish existing hospitals.

Erica Watson, Vice-Chair, Westbury League of Friends

I DO hope the people of Trowbridge and surrounding villages of all ages will turn out in force for the march on Saturday July 15 from Trowbridge Hospital to County Hall.

The march will leave the hospital at noon.

This is no time for excuses or apathy! Every family who values the hospital needs to be involved. If unable for any reason to come on the march perhaps they could meet us at County Hall to show their support.

J Waring, Trowbridge

ANYONE who has attended the recent PCT meetings will realise that they are only window dressing, a sop to suggest discussion and fair play.

The government has expended billions of pounds engaging consultants in the private sector with a view to privatising the NHS by stealth. There are now over 150 PCTs around the country appointed to soften public opinion, and get them to accept the loss of their hospitals without too much fuss.

I suggest many of the proposals for care in the community are unworkable and may even put lives at risk. The proposed care, 24 hours a day for patients, will need an army of nurses/carers working three shifts daily plus a back-up staff.

Ignoring the astronomical cost, what about health and safety regulations concerning the lifting of patients etc also the danger of assault both physical and sexual?

I find it odd that all the doctors' surgeries have such a full complement of patients that you wait four or five days for an appointment and the chances of a home visit are practically nil.

How is it these GPs now find time to manage a health centre, employing maybe 60 staff?

E Bayliss, Trowbridge

INEFFECTIVE management: lack of robust budget setting and weak financial monitoring: failure to involve senior doctors (ie operational managers) in planning: reliance on short term fixes.

The above are the four main areas of criticism levelled by the NHS financial watchdog at 25 out of 556 Trusts in England.

And who features among these 25? None other than our own West Wiltshire Trust, together with that for Kennet and North Wiltshire, with whom we are closely connected.

These are the organisations that told the residents of west and north Wiltshire that they know what is best for us and that we must chose one of three proposals and that certain specific alternatives were not for consideration!

In the light of observations made by the official watchdog how can we have any confidence in proposals made for the future by the West Wilts PCT? The Trust has been badly led and the buck stops at the top!

It is time that common sense had a place in the planning for our future medical facilities in the area before more of our taxes and, God forbid, even lives are lost.

P Stephens, Westbury

THE Primary Care Trust here in Wiltshire is meant to provide us with an accessible effective service in health care both within our local hospitals and within care at home and elsewhere in the community.

The Primary Care Trust has severely got its sums wrong and is in a hole financially, it is in thousands of pounds of debt and is now trying to dig its way out by making rash choices affecting our health care despite us all, the public, being against their decisions and proposals.

They are making drastic cuts which will dramatically affect our accessibility to health care and in doing this they are hitting the most vulnerable people in the community the hardest.

My town hospital has been closed, along with it the facilities for physiotherapy, speech therapy, audiology, minor operations, an inpatient unit for the elderly, and the most crucial probably, and the newest service, the stroke rehabiliatation. The closure of this particular hospital is very recent, although as a community we are all still reeling.

We, the public, have had two somewhat limited and farcical meetings with the PCT about their proposals, time was not properly allocated for us to air our views, peoples' comments were often talked over or given weak answers in return.

Unforgivable, in my opinion, is the fact that professionals at the meeting, health visitors for one and midwives too, were threatened with disciplinary action for speaking out passionately about their cause. Their cause being of course their careers, and their dedication for their community which they work tirelessly for to provide a high standard of care.

Also, something which caused disgust is the fact that two local councillors who also spoke out passionately, conveying the strength of feeling felt by all of us, did in fact receive disciplinary action.

The PCT are trying to silence us and in doing so they feel they can easily change our health care system, close our hospitals, just to try to balance the books, and make amendments for their miscalculations and financial errors.

The PCT are also closing Trowbridge Hospital, and are in fact planning to bulldoze this perfectly good working, modern building to the ground. In doing so they will be denying us a casualty dept, a maternity unit, a pre-natal care unit and an inpatient unit.

The closure of the maternity unit is a disgrace. It was recently awarded a gold star award of excellence. Some 800 women on average a year pass through the pre-natal, maternity and post-natal care units. The care given is of an excellent standard, it is on a personal level, there is a good rapport between staff and patients, there is the time to care properly.

400 women on average give birth at Trowbridge, it is unacceptable to say, as the PCT proposes, that this amount of women can give birth at home or at Chippenham Hospital or Bath RUH. The PCT say they are giving mums-to-be choice, but they are clearly wrong.

What concerns me most is how people living with debilitating illness will cope with having their health care snatched away from under them. The sufferers of MS, those who have had strokes, the elderly, those with injuries who need physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

How can they expected to travel to Chippenham, which in rush hour can take more than an hour in a car. Who will fund this for them? It is the usual case of the most vulnerable in our community getting the raw deal, and it is a disgrace. With Devizes and Warminster Hospital closing as well, we in the south of Wiltshire lose out massively.

There is a need for cuts yes if money is to be saved, but these proposals are purely insane. The new generation community hospitals that the PCT claim can be built have no funding, no real plans in terms of which land to use and how to run it financially... yet they insist on closing perfectly good buildings and bulldozing them to the ground.

I know for a fact that health visitors have had their services cut drastically only allowed to visit new mums once now, instead of the original allocated six visits. What about mums who cannot cope? Children who may be at risk? Post-natal depression?

The PCT have done an appalling job of providing us with the best affordable healthcare, now they are pulling it from under our feet completely.

People I believe will be dying as a result of overcrowding in the hospitals, mums will be at risk during their pregnancies and births and people will be struggling to travel just to get the basic of care. It is a downright disgrace and we deserve better don't we?

D M Donkin, Westbury

PATRICIA Hewitt, Health Secretary, must be the most despised and distrusted woman in Britain, and Carol Clarke, PCT chief, the same in Wiltshire. Do they take us for fools?

I used to think, like your correspondent last week, that the PCT were trying to gain cash from the sale of hospital sites for development, but apparently any money would go to the government.

Did you know that the PCT have to pay the equivalent of rent for our hospitals to the NHS? Talk about giving with one hand, and taking away with the other. Would anyone be interested in setting up a website to focus resistance to this outrage, because it will take more than a protest march to stop the plans?

It could be called Scrap The PCT Not The Hospitals. What about a judicial review application?

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