Our vanishing hospitals
From Gill Ib Sir: In 1909 my great-grandfather C.H.E. Croydon built and gave the Croydon Cottage Hospital to the people of Felixstowe. It consisted of ten beds and the population at that time was roughly 1,840. We now find that, with a population of nearly 33,000 and ever more need for hospital beds, it faces the possibility of closure (‘Fear in the community’, 17 September).
The Bartlett Hospital, also in Felixstowe, is to close; this has already been decided by the PCT. They say that to have two hospitals in Felixstowe is unsustainable because of the large deficit position they are in. But when the buildings are sold and the money is gone, what will happen when ‘changing for the better’ proves to be a disaster and people’s lives are put at risk? At present, it is impossible to find a private carer, let alone an NHS one. Where are they going to find staff to work for them?
I live in Aldeburgh, where another community hospital has had its beds cut from 32 to 20. The majority of people there are over 65 and though in general they are a very healthy, fit bunch of people, they need their hospital. It is a good 25 miles to Ipswich. Both hospitals have an excellent League of Friends and many thousands of pounds have been spent on these two hospitals.
The Primary Care Trust has been in existence for over four years and, as far as I can see, it has been a complete disaster. The health service in Suffolk has a debt of £74.3 million. How can anyone get into so much debt without realising it? If this happened in the private sector, people would have been sacked.
Gill Ib
Aldeburgh, Suffolk From Simon Preston Sir: Re community hospital closures, I would warn Rye Hospital not to think that they are safe just because they have raised money to keep their hospital. The people of Tetbury raised £1.5 million to save their hospital from closure on the understanding that the NHS would contract services out from them. For 14 years we have run the hospital, spent a further £400,000 on new capital projects, and over the last five years have raised an average of £100,000 a year to subsidise running costs to the benefit of the NHS.
In August our local PCT reneged on its contract and informed us that it was withdrawing support for our in-patient beds with effect from 31 December, thereby reducing our income by 55 per cent and condemning our sick and elderly to be referred to other hospitals, which are unreachable by rural transport.
Some ‘patient-led NHS’!
Simon Preston
Chairman, Tetbury Hospital Trust, Gloucestershire
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