Health Service Forum South East

A member of the Scottish Health Campaigns Network

 

KEEPING THE SCOTTISH NHS LOCAL - UPDATE SPRING 2006

 

The preparation work for the new road and the utility services for the ACAD at the QPR site has started. This is an appropriate time for the Forum to make a statement of where we currently are and our thoughts for the future.

  • We continue to have serious concerns re safety implications for certain procedures being proposed on a stand-alone site without the back up of an acute hospital.
  • Whilst we welcome the range of services which are to be provided within the ACAD and the undoubted benefit to patients, this can in no way mitigate for the loss of the A & E department.
  • Transport has been a significant issue from the outset. The Board has admitted that a good transport network is central to the success of their strategy but so far there has been little evidence to indicate significant progress in this area.
  • We have continued to highlight the absolute necessity of an effective IT system across the NHS within a measurably short timescale. It is difficult for us to quantify any progress to date.
  • Our concern over the need for overnight beds does seem to have borne fruit, and now there is to be a small number of nursing beds to care for day surgery patients unable to go home.  We are convinced that a serious deficiency at the ACAD will be the lack of facilities to provide emergency resuscitation and stabilising of patients who have adverse reactions to their surgical or medical treatment.
  • The provision of overnight beds means that there will be a reduction in the number of rehabilitation (elderly) beds.  The current provision in the Mansionhouse Unit is approx. 200 and the figure to be provided within the ACAD will be 60 less whatever overnight beds are finally provided.  This is a huge reduction in the local provision of rehabilitation beds and no satisfactory response has yet been received as to where these patients will be accommodated.
  • The Kerr Report supported centralisation for specialist services but encouraged local hospital provision.  This is what people in the SE of Glasgow (and across Scotland) want.   Calling the ACAD the ‘New Victoria Hospital’ does not make it one.
  • We are told that increased travelling distance to A & E is not so important provided the necessary care is given within as short a time as possible.  We remain unconvinced that the necessary mechanisms and personnel will be in place to provide this service. Longer journey times must impact unfavourably on patients and our worry is that some will not make it to the chosen A & E.

 

Since the plans for the ACAD were first announced there have been many changes: the increased size, the alterations to the design and siting of the building, the cost, the extended hours of opening and the range of services provided with overnight beds. We believe that many of these changes have been brought about as a direct result of issues raised by the Health Service Forum. Our concerns, forcibly expressed, about the Board’s original plan for an ACAD operating 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, have been recognised and as a result GGNHS has indicated much longer opening hours and a 7 day week.

 

It is a very uncertain time for those who use the hospital services and the evidence in the national papers currently makes depressing reading. As the Board presses on with its Acute Services Strategy and its plans for the Southern General it is our intention to continue to scrutinise, research and comment on all that is being proposed. 

 

There is still much work to be done, and with your support, the Forum will continue to strive to ensure the highest level of patient care is provided to the residents of south Glasgow.

 

Margaret Hinds

Chair