What the People have to say.

Comments from the West Lothian Community

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29th April 2009 NHS Lothian double standards In an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News on 25th April 2009 regarding the axing of plans to send patients from West Edinburgh to St. John's, the article states.. 'NHS bosses conceded that transport links from the city to the hospital [St. John's] were not yet good enough to expect often frail patients to commute'. But NHS Bosses think making frail patients from West Lothian travel even further to City hospitals using the same 'not good enough' transport links is quite acceptable!! Once again the NHS Lothian Board lets us know how little it cares about West Lothian patient care. It continues with it's policy of double standards and a two tier post code based standard of health care. Read the Edinburgh Evening News article here 25th April 2009 Ernie Walker On April 23rd 2009 the Edinburgh Evening News published an article on the Founder of our Stop the Downgrade Campaign, Ernie Walker. Ernie is presently very unwell and this sensitively written article gives some history of Ernie's role as the founder of the Campaign. It also tells of his unwavering and passionate fight on the wider NHS issues in Lothian but in particular, the return of services to St. John's which are vital to the local healthcare of West Lothian residents. Read the Edinburgh Evening News article here.. 19th April 2009 This Campaign has consistently pledged to bring into the Public domain issues and practices within the NHS which it believes are against the best interests of Patients, Staff and the provision of acceptable local healthcare. Our April newsletter highlights many more shocking issues that are not generally known about by the Public. Read the April Newsletter here.. Should NHS staff be allowed to speak about problems in services publicly without being reprimanded? Take a few moments to complete the West Lothian Herald and Post opinion Poll - more here.. Poll results to date 15th February 2009 Best Wishes Ernie. News reaches us that the Chairman of the Stop the Downgrade Campaign continues his fight against progressive illness after a recent hospital stay. Ernie Walker, a former Health Board Chief Executive with a wealth of experience of how healthcare should be delivered, has been an inspiration to health campaigners in West Lothian, and wider afield. He has been involved in the fight for improved service delivery from St. John’s Hospital for many years. On behalf of the Campaign, our supporters, colleagues and friends who have expressed their concern for his welfare and best wishes for a speedy recovery, we would like to send this message of continued support to Ernie and Joyce.   5th November 2008 “Can anyone really TRUST this unelected Health Board?” It seems your unelected NHS Lothian board and it’s chairman are not only attempting to dictate your health care needs they are also attempting to ride roughshod over the rights of you and your democratically elected representatives by restricting their access to a publicly funded publicly financed and maintained building. Not only is this a direct attack on the right of Elected Politicians to carry out their statutory duties without hindrance or impediment it is an affront to the civil liberties of every patient in St John’s by denying them open, unfettered and private access to their democratically elected representatives. That an unelected placeman can assume to deny those paying his salary their basic human rights the minute they pass through the door of St John’s until they leave, is surely an abuse of power which must warrant an immediate and thorough investigation. The press release and coverage can be accessed at.. ATSSJH Press release BBC News website 23rd October 2008 The following is a list of proposed meetings of the newly formed St John's Hospital Stakeholder Group. These meetings are open to the public and we will keep you informed as to time and place of each meeting as it is announced. Proposed Meetings Schedule It is recommended that the Group consider and agree a meetings schedule. Proposed dates and times for the next 8 meetings are as follows: • Monday, 20 October @ 9am • Friday, 28 November @ 2pm • Monday, 12 January @ 2pm • Monday, 9 February @ 2pm • Friday, 13 March @ 2pm • Monday, 6 April @ 2pm • Friday, 8 May @ 2pm • Monday, 8 June @ 2pm 19th October 2008 YET ANOTHER BROKEN PROMISE Once again NHS Lothian has misled the people of West Lothian and once again they have been found out. Following much confusion it has emerged that they are not, as was announced by their Associate Medical Director together with the Chair of the West Lothian Community Health & Care Partnership, opening a unit which will see an additional 3000 patients a day attend at St John’s. They are not bringing the influx of Doctors, jobs and support services or the large economic benefits to the area that this would have indicated. They are in fact opening a unit which will see an additional 3000 people per YEAR, around 8 per day, go through it. It certainly is not a commitment to the long term future of St. John’s as an Acute Emergency Hospital. In fact it uses our vital theatre space, which could be used for emergency surgery and elective orthopaedics, for bunions. Does the Chair of the West Lothian Community Health & Care Partnership honestly think that this is what the people of the area need when she welcomed this as great news for St John’s and the people of West Lothian? Did anyone even bother to ask us? West Lothian have yet again been disappointed and let down by their health board, once again their best interests have been overlooked by their Health Board and once again their voices have gone unheard by their Health Board. We have in the past seen many broken promises from this board, here is yet another. They have raised the hopes of many people including the unemployed of the area. It is time that they were roundly condemned for this practice and those guilty of perpetrating it brought to book. 29th September 2008 Support for massive commitment to St. John's Following the release on Thursday of the report outlining plans for a new Elective Surgical Centre based at St. John’s Hospital we have been inundated with calls, not just welcoming NHS Lothian’s commitment to such a HUGE increase in both numbers of patients attending at, and catchment area covered by St. John’s, but excitement and enthusiasm for the influx of consultants, doctor’s, nurses and jobs that this will also bring. This whole package which NHS Lothian (and supported on behalf of the CHCP-primary care by the Chair) is committed to providing, represents not only a large investment but in a significant move will see thousands travelling to West Lothian daily. Read more as reported in the West Lothian Courier 25th September 2008... THE STOP THE DOWNGRADE CAMPAIGN STRATEGY The primary aim of our Campaign is an immediate stop to the transfer of services to Edinburgh. Thereafter, we intend to develop the Better Acute Care in Lothian (BACiL) proposal whose fundamental principle is the creation of TWO emergency hospitals in Lothian – St John’s and the Royal Infirmary (RIE). It is essential that services in both hospitals are made safe and sustainable. This is clinically and ethically appropriate. It will allow also the overwhelming majority of Lothian’s population to enjoy high quality emergency services close to their homes. On the St John’s site this will require a considerable enhancement of the existing catchment area from 170000 to at least 250000. Moreover, St John’s will need to provide a mix of local and regional services. The latter should include a component of emergency general surgery. This in turn will provide support for Intensive Care, Accident and Emergency and the Medical Unit. We intend to build on St John’s existing strengths while providing relief to the hard-pressed RIE. Several departments currently based in Edinburgh can move relatively easily to St John’s. These might include, for example, the Infectious Diseases Unit and Haematology. As services return to St John’s it is inevitable that the infrastructure will need to be built up. In this way, we would hope to see the return of specialised laboratory services such as Pathology, and the Mortuary. We have already made representations to senior politicians at Holyrood to advise NHS Lothian to revoke the recent rise in car parking charges for patients, staff and visitors. Be patient! Progress will be slow. However, what matters is the destination! We are working towards re-establishing St John’s as a fully-fledged, fully-staffed emergency general hospital which will evolve to meet the long-term needs of the rapidly expanding local population as well as making a significant contribution to the totality of health care across the whole of Lothian.