Once the proposal to close the surgical day unit arose during the Summer many people contacted their local councillors to let it be known that they wanted the day unit to remain at Shotley Bridge and on top of that many were fearful for the other services at the hospital.
We raised these issues with the Acute services trust and asked for a meeting to try and find a way forward. At that meeting the acute trust agreed to continue with the service at the surgical day unit until the end of March next year. To help our hospital services we agreed to pay £25,000 to the trust as a contribution toward the savings they would achieved by the closure. Derwentside Primary Care Trust also agreed to contribute the same amount.
But this only buys us time, so what all of the parties around the table agreed to was a working group to look not only at the future of the surgical day unit but the development opportunities for the hospital itself. That working party which includes Durham County Council and local GPs have now secured monies from the Derwentside LSP to take the next step. Alex Watson
posted by derwentside district council @ 1:56 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
We support any efforts to maintain a hospital at Shotley Bridge in particular the ability to see Consultants at that site in preference to having go to City based hospitals
There are many pensioners like myself living in the vicinity of the hospital and they need the surgical day unit. I believe the pensioners are in the majority on Derwentside and to ignore them will cause you problems. I for one, will demand an ambulance if I have to go to a hospital outside the area. I've already contributed into the national health since the end of the war and at 81 years of age I'm still working and contributing to the taxman (and the exhorbitant rates)so I, like most of us, want the services I've paid for over the years.
It is vital to maintain locally those services which do not require high tech specialist equipment, which is a good deal of medical care. Too often we are told that we cannot keep services in a given area because of the need for the latest equipment, when the reality is that the accessibility of the locality is more important to the patient and the care they receive than the equipment
I have lived in Consett for 15 yrs and watched the decline of shotley hospital to its current state. In recent years I have began to suffer ill health, and although Im a regular attender at the hospital clinics Im still able to keep a regular job due to the locality and efficency of the staff. I couldnt expect my employer to accept me going to dryburn taking 2 to 3hrs for a twenty min appointment (it takes twenty mins to find a parking space).HOW CAN THE PEOPLE STOP THIS?
The residents of Derwentside need accessable services within the Shotley Hospital site,. We cannot expect the elderly and infirm to travel unacceptable distances to access treatment which could be provided at the Shotley site.
As a ward Councillor for Benfieldside, the area in which the Hospital is sited, I feel it is of paramount importance that services be retained and current provision be extended to meet the growing needs of the district.
A good standard of medical provision is vital to the infastructure neccessary to our continuing development of the district.
Duncan Barnett
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