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Health failings

IN the press, there have been numerous references to the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and their controversial maternity proposals.

Who exactly are these Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who are making crucial decisions about our healthcare?

The independent health charity, the King’s Fund, reports the National Audit Office, believes NHS England has only a “limited understanding” of how effective CCGs are in monitoring conflict of interest.

The Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is making healthcare provision decisions effecting the whole of Wiltshire, is dominated by representatives by GP surgeries from south, north east and west Wiltshire. These GP practices are, in fact, private businesses.

Therefore there are GPs who are commissioning healthcare who are also private providers of healthcare contracted to the NHS. In the words of one authoritative health publication, this has created a “structural conflict of interest”.

This is made worse by the inadequate constitutions under which the WCCG was set up. There is no requirement in the Clinical Commissioning Group constitution that the interests of the whole Wiltshire population are taken into account by the WCCG when making decisions.

Instead, the Terms of Reference for each of the three localities, south, north and west Wiltshire, is based on localised self-interest. “All decisions and actions made by the CCG will be fair to all member practices and the population they serve.”

So it is a carve-up, with representatives from each locality seeking to bag the biggest share of funding and facilities for their area, irrespective of the impact on the rest of Wiltshire.

These GP members have a vested interest in obtaining and retaining the best medical facilities for their area, even at the expense of patients in other areas of Wiltshire.

The Clinical Commissioning Group is not accountable to the ordinary people of Wiltshire.

Following a private meeting where the WCCG allowed the RUH to take over the Wiltshire birthing units, Trowbridge unit midwives were required to work at the Princess Anne Wing.

The WCCG is supposedly accountable to the Wiltshire Council health scrutiny and health and wellbeing committees, yet neither committee was told of this clandestine takeover of these major Wiltshire health facilities!

The unaccountable WCCG repeatedly hides behind its officers who, in turn, avoid engaging with the detailed questioning that their arbitrary proposals provoke.

This is no way to run a health service. The Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group is not fit for purpose. The people of Wiltshire deserve better!

A P Milroy, Bellefield Crescent, Trowbridge

Family thanks

The family of Yvonne Brice, who passed away recently after losing her battle with cancer, would like to thank all those who sent her cards and visited her whilst she was in hospital and afterwards. They would also like to thank the many people who attended the celebration of her life at Wesley Road Church on Friday. It was heartening to know she so well loved and appreciated.

A special thanks to Marion and Jane, her Guide friends, and Wesley Road Church for all their help and support.

Bob Brice, Church Fields, Trowbridge

Storm in Gardens

CALMLY, I observe (Times March 15) that the local council wants to charge the local nursery of the use of Westbury Gardens as a play area for their small group of, no doubt, local council taxpayers’ children.

I see this happy band of children daily and I am sure this early learning and playing will benefit the town in years to come.

Now for the storm. If the council can charge the nursery school why do they not charge the members of the social club who use the Gardens up to eight hours a day 365 days a year, using the council facilities on benches to sit on and trees as toilets.

Despite local protests and polite requests from local residents the council refuses to make Westbury Gardens an alcohol-free zone.

Gareth (Storm) Jones, Abbey Mill, Church Street, Bradford on Avon

Schools all special

WHEN Wiltshire Council’s intentions to close three special schools were first leaked, all three were obviously really worried about the future and vowed to fight to keep their schools open: Larkrise (Trowbridge), St Nicholas (Chippenham) and Rowdeford (near Devizes).

There has been a lot of publicity around Larkrise and St Nicholas schools, as both have continued to be very vocal and public in our fight. I feel the need to reach out to the parents/carers of Rowdeford School.

Rowdeford is a specialist secondary school for pupils with moderate learning disabilities. It is an absolutely beautiful school in a beautiful rural setting with a good Ofsted rating. Small, very personal, and obviously well loved.

I visited Rowdeford recently and whilst I was there I had such a lovely feeling about it. I could actually imagine my son Lewis there when he is secondary school age, there was something really magical about it.

But as beautiful as the setting is, it would not suit all children.

The community links formed with Devizes seem to work well for the current children attending the school, older children, able-bodied children who can quickly hop on and off a bus, but they would not work as well for all children.

Why take away parents/carers’ choice of schools? And why take away children with SEN from the Trowbridge and Chippenham communities? How does this help local mainstream children understand and learn about inclusion?

Has anyone considered how the current children attending Rowdeford would cope with the upheaval and disruption of extreme building works going on whilst children are at school over the next few years? This project is huge.

And what about transition? Close three schools in July 2023 and expect the children to slot straight into a brand spanking new school three times the size of what they are used to with three times the pupils and three times the staff in September 2023?

We are not and never have been against Rowdeford School. Rowdeford should stay as it is.

Never have any of our arguments about community links, or travel or the setting been disrespectful.

We want to work with the parents/carers of children at Rowdeford, to protect all of our schools and our children’s welfare, and that of future children requiring SEN provision.

Our children and these three local schools are all ‘special’ in more ways than one.

Teresa Lilley, Larkrise parent

Staff told first

I REFER to your Braeside article of last week. Staff at Braeside were actually the first to be told.

Just before Christmas I heard a rumour that Wiltshire College were considering their bid position so I immediately rang the college.

They confirmed they were still going through the process and I arranged to meet with the college management team at Lackham on January 15.

At this meeting I was told that they would be withdrawing their bid because it did not meet their strategic direction. I expressed my disappointment at this decision.

I immediately organised meetings face to face with the three other bidders to confirm their ongoing interest and wish to be considered further.

I met the other bidders in January and February, as soon as diaries would allow, and confirmed their continuing interest, or not as in one case, as well as confirming other details to allow Wiltshire Council to choose a new preferred bidder.

The staff from Braeside were briefed on all of the details on Tuesday, February 26 – a long time before any public or press information was released.

This enabled Wiltshire Council to give the staff the positive news that we were now discussing the way forward with two bidders, and that the outdoor education provision would remain at Braeside.

Finally, I have to disagree with Dave Borrie, who is chairman of the Management Board at Braeside which meets four times a year. Wiltshire has been very open with the staff, and we guaranteed the financial support to Braeside to December 2019 so that all schools would be confident in booking.

Philip Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance, Procurement, Transformation and Operational Assets, Wiltshire Council

Graham Payne: a personal tribute

I WAS deeply saddened to be told that Cllr Graham Payne had died after a short battle with cancer.

I am grateful to Graham and his family for allowing me the opportunity of seeing him twice over the last few weeks, the last time being a few days before he died.

I was struck by the courage and how supremely brave he was, resigned to the fact that the rest of his life was short. He was making arrangements for his funeral. It also gave me the opportunity to say thank you for being a wonderful friend and especially for his support which he gave for the Bowyers/Innox Riverside site development when it led to an appeal which was won after a fight to get a Cineworld into Trowbridge.

I knew Graham from the 70s when I was 16 and he had been a close family friend. I remember walking the streets in his Dryhnam ward, posting leaflets to try and get him elected, which he won overwhelmingly and he has since held for well over 45 years as a parish, district and county councillor.

After working in West Wilts District Council for 12 years, I moved into cinema exhibition. Graham gave me a glowing reference moving from public service to an American company. I vowed to him that I would try to get a multiplex cinema into Trowbridge and I kept in touch with him for over 20 years updating him until that had been achieved. As we all know you try and get one then two turn up - that said we do have an excellent Odeon now.

Graham and I had a love of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which ran out of Bath and which closed in 1966. He spoke frequently of when he was at school near Bath and of the PE runs he went on which took him past this railway line at different points, watching steam locomotives powering up the gradients out of the city.

But it is in Trowbridge and West Wiltshire where Graham made his mark devoting a lifetime of public service for almost 50 years. Graham was a formidable councillor, a true conservative politician with a social conscience. I have sat in many council meetings over the years and one could not help but be impressed by Graham’s public speaking abilities. He would precis and explain things so that you could understand the crux of any argument. Many times they would be embellished with humorous anecdotes. He was the Fred Dibnah of Trowbridge in a political sense. One must also not forget his support and contribution to local charities. They will miss him.

He would fly the flag for the county town of Trowbridge with resolute determination, whether it was the smells of the sewage works, Trowbridge park, the multi-storey car park, Innox Riverside, the list is endless. You could pick up the phone and talk frankly with Graham and he listened, imparting tremendous knowledge of local politics and it is for this he will be desperately missed.

Some years ago when the then MP Dennis Walters retired, I said to him why on earth don’t you put yourself forward to be selected as MP for this area?.

His commitment to his family and dedication to making Trowbridge and West Wiltshire a much better place was a priority for him. I can only but wonder what a marvellous MP he would have made for this area.

I, like many others, will miss an excellent and loyal friend, who was larger than life and whose character and personality resonated whenever you had the opportunity of being in his presence.

Graham sadly lost his wife just before Christmas 2017 and soon after he started his own battle with the disease that has now taken him from us. I would like to send my sincere condolences to his loving family. It cannot be easy for them to lose a mother and father in such a short space of time.

Mike Baxter, The Croft, Trowbridge