The
Stop the Downgrade Campaign
MEETING 24TH APRIL 2008 - MEETING REPORT
Friends,
At the meeting on April 24th Ernie welcomed everyone before
giving an excellent speech in which he spelt out that
we are neither idealists nor asking for the impossible.
We are simply asking for the return of what we used to
have, what we should still have and what we can have -
a local acute emergency hospital in West Lothian.
Ellen
and Gordon, on behalf of Action to Save St. John’s
Hospital (ATSSJH), addressed the meeting with an update
on the work they and the Council are doing on behalf of
St. John’s Hospital (SJH), the recent discussions
and ongoing negotiations and the hard work taking place
behind the scenes. By way of example, a letter had been
received that morning from the Cabinet Secretary for Health,
in which she gives her support for a stakeholder group
to be formed including the Health Board and West Lothian
Council to take forward together the future of St. John’s.
They are also hopeful of good news on the parking front.
The meeting was informed of the Councillors recent involvement
in negotiations which resulted in a successful outcome
for the laboratory staff at St John’s. This group
had been graded lower than their counterparts at Royal
Infirmary Edinburgh (RIE), which for a time had placed
the laboratory services at SJH under severe threat, with
staff seeking new positions which reflected their worth.
At their wits end they contacted us asking if we could
help them. The ATSSJH Councillors had several meetings
with the staff and took up their cause, also contacting
Angela Constance the MSP for Livingston. Their combined
efforts paid off and the staff have now been informed
that their grades and wages will be raised to that of
their Edinburgh equivalents and backdated. They are “ecstatic”
at the outcome and grateful for the help they received.
The lack of on-site management has been another problem.
The Councillors have been highlighting this also as they
felt this was a contributing factor to the loss of morale
at the hospital. It is no coincidence that there has been
a complete shake up of the senior management team at St
John’s! Ellen has already met with the new senior
manager at the hospital and brought to his attention the
most pressing problems that staff members have taken to
her. She plans to make this a regular meeting.
Ashok once again reiterated from the outset that his participation
in the meeting was in relation to his leadership of ATSSJH.
He talked about the hospital being above politics. He
made it clear he felt saddened that some politicians were
more intent on scoring points in the press rather than
engaging in the struggle to return services. He indicated
that he planned to maintain a dignified silence while
working behind the scenes to fulfill the campaign objectives
of his party. It was clear that even in such a short space
of time there had been tremendous successes. There had
been no further attrition of services following the success
of ATSSJH at the election. Work was in progress in respect
of the return of emergency surgical services and an enhanced
catchment area. The Health Board’s attempt to double
car parking charges for the public had been prevented
and, moreover, Ashok felt hopeful that these would be
scrapped for both visitors and staff within the not too
distant future. The process of democratising Health Boards
had started with the consultative process implemented
by the new SNP government. All in all, an excellent start
for ATSSJH and Stop the Downgrade! He then went on to
emphasise that bullying and intimidation at any level
within the Health Service would not be tolerated. Judging
by the messages posted on the website, many Lothian staff
feel threatened if they speak out publicly, if they voice
their concerns or if they tell the public what is really
happening within St John’s. He indicated that Ernie,
as Chair of Stop the Downgrade, had pledged to reveal
the truth in his newsletters while maintaining absolute
confidentiality for his sources. In a stirring closing
sentence, he urged the public to maintain faith in the
local Campaign to return St John’s to a high quality
local hospital with a full range of acute, emergency services.
There
followed a speech of which a shortened version is published
below.
Marion
emphasised her admiration for the work being done by the
Councillors. They work extremely long hours battling not
just for the hospital but for their constituents. They
are excellent Councillors in every sense of the word!
She praised Ernie for his steadfast determination to keep
the people of West Lothian fully aware of what is being
done in their name. She stated that in her opinion “they
are all people of principle and dedication, we and St.
John’s, are lucky to have them.” The website
and hotline are busier than ever. All were urged to continue
backing the Councillors and the campaign and also to show
their support for the staff in this difficult climate.
Several
members of the audience said they were appalled that staff
were allegedly being bullied and intimidated. The widely
held view is that in a democracy, staff do not lose their
basic human rights (including freedom of speech) when
they take a job with NHS Lothian. We have been asked both
during the meeting and in approaches afterwards, if there
is something that the supporters can do to highlight this
issue and demand from Government that this is stamped
out. We are already working on a strategy!
The next meeting will be held on Thursday August 28th
in the Kaim Park Hotel at 7.30pm. We assure you the hard
work and the campaigning will continue unabated. We will
be in touch.
We hope you will continue
to UNITE IN THE FIGHT.
Speech in shortened form:
This first year has proved both productive and enlightening.
We have sourced information which we didn’t know
even existed e.g. “The Birmingham report”
compiled by independent professors from Birmingham University.
Far from the “unsafe, uneconomic, unable to recruit
hospital” which was the picture of SJH presented
by the board of NHS Lothian (and readily accepted by the
then administration) it finds that healthcare in West
Lothian was thriving. St. John’s was a vibrant hospital
which had little or no problems in recruiting and retaining
staff. Indeed it was suggested that this hospital should
be the one upon which all other Trusts should be modelled
throughout the Country. I could go on. High praise was
indeed bestowed upon St. John’s - its management,
workers, standards of care, etc. However, this report
was buried and never saw the light of day – Why?
Well, I would say, let’s look at who stood to lose
from this report being made public- NHS Lothian and the
then Scottish Executive. In order to pay for the colossally
expensive PFI New Royal Infirmary they had to concoct
reasons for centralising services. They needed patients
from West Lothian to go to Edinburgh to help balance the
books. They needed money previously spent in West Lothian
to be channelled into Edinburgh to help pay the Royal
Infirmary mortgage. In reality, NHS Lothian are in hock
to private companies for almost a billion pounds which
is what it will cost us and our children over the next
twenty or thirty years. So, although there was no reason
to remove our services or lose local control of St. John’s,
this was done to asset strip our hospital and keep the
Royal afloat. We were robbed of our money, our services,
our once fully-fledged hospital and, in some instances
our lives.
We arrive at the disaster we have today, and, make no
mistake, for the patients of West Lothian this is a disaster.
This is why a year ago we decided to take the fight for
St. John’s to the ballot box. The people of West
Lothian stood up and voted in their thousands for our
hospital. We helped to change the political scene both
locally and nationally because we wanted services returned
and kept local.
Ayr and Monklands were also under threat but an independent
review (ordered by the new Scottish Government) deemed
it unsafe for various emergency services to be centralised
and for patients to travel. Why does this proviso not
apply in West Lothian? The decision made in 2004 to remove
emergency surgery and trauma orthopaedics needs urgent
review. Why were local people not consulted?
Stop
the Downgrade believes there is a pressing need to hold
this Health Board to account for their actions both in
the immediate past and present. They have apparently misled
parliamentary Ministers, they have sold off £100million
of public assets in the past few years and they continue
to disadvantage the people of West Lothian. NHS Lothian
Board believes it is above reproach and answerable to
no one – wrong. They are unelected and, as such,
are answerable to Ministers and Councillors elected by
the public to hold such bodies to account on behalf of
us the TAXPAYER and ultimate paymaster.
It
would appear that West Lothian has been deserted by UNISON.
In other areas of Scotland UNISON actively campaigned
against the removal of services from hospitals. They have
an anti PFI section on their web site, yet they have uttered
not one word of condemnation of NHS Lothian’s PFI
agenda or its effect on public services in West Lothian!
The staff ask how it can be possible for their senior
representative to be Vice Chair of the Board. Is there
not an obvious conflict of interest? There are also many
retired residents who all their lives paid Union dues,
but who are now being let down by UNISON’s desertion
of their community, Where is UNISON’s resistance
in West Lothian to parking charges which target the sick,
the elderly and the staff. In Glasgow, for example, it
was UNISON which led the fight. In West Lothian not a
peep. We have written to UNISON about these issues. A
copy of the letter is available at www.stopthedowngrade.org
- To date we have had no response.
Staff
and patients are now contacting us in droves as they become
more affected by the running down of the hospital. Senior
nursing staff have been forced to appeal to the RCN. They
are seriously alarmed at now being asked to run their
wards with less than the required level of staff. This,
they feel, renders them unable to employ “safe and
effective practice” on their wards. Posts are being
left unfilled. Patients are being shuffled all over to
meet a four hour target. Even dying patients and their
families are being denied privacy to keep beds free so
that NHS Lothian do not breech their targets. St. John’s
is on its knees and often it is only the goodwill of dedicated
staff which keeps it going. NHS Lothian needs to be reminded
that it serves the entire population of Lothian and not
just those in Edinburgh.
We have a right to have a say on the healthcare we want
and need. It is not up to the Health Board to simply dictate
terms based upon their financial priorities. We never
asked for PFI. We certainly did not intend St. John’s
to be downgraded to pay for it. West Lothian will no longer
accept that they have to pay a disproportionate cost of
the PFI experiment which has gone so disastrously wrong.
Stop
the Downgrade has no plans to disappear. We will continue
campaigning to restore our fully-fledged, fully staffed,
fully serviced and locally managed hospital, safe and
secure in West Lothian.
