Can proposed changes within Worcestershire’s hospitals be halted?

Clearly many people within Worcestershire regard the new PFI built Worcestershire Royal Hospital as inconvenient to reach compared with the Alexander Hospital.

From Bromsgrove town either the 143 or X3 buses leave every 30 minutes to Redditch bus station, where either the 55 or 56 buses leave every ten minutes to the Alexander Hospital; just 7 miles from Bromsgrove - a relatively short travel time. Whereas the Royal Hospital – for those without car transport – involves a 12 mile journey to Worcester bus station to board the 31 bus, which can take up to 40 minutes to reach the new Worcester hospital.

Worcestershire’s NHS is not alone in having to make unpopular, unpalatable decisions. Countrywide over 30 Hospital Trusts are now in a critical condition; with 21 hospitals said to be clinically and financially unsustainable – with PFI payments making up about one third of their cost; so the Government should and could tackle the PFI burden placed on new hospitals.

Also as the NHS is responsibility for the lives of 570,000 people within Worcestershire, which is projected to increase to 586,000 by 2026, could the Royal Hospital cope, because even now parking a car there can be a nightmare at certain times.

The arguments given that the Royal Hospital is more modern, better equipped and providing greater expertise is relative and surely for most standard hospital procedures the Alexander Hospital is perfectly capable to deal with them; so let’s get things into perspective.

Apart from the PFI funding problem, health provision with new drugs, procedures and highly paid staff will rapidly soak up any new money ploughed into it but if providing everything possible can now not be achieved, people perhaps must accept that if the Alexander Hospital is saved or reprieved for now cuts will  need to be made elsewhere 

The facts are that 1,500 people are at present being treated in the County’s two A & E Departments and there are 500,000 Outpatients and 100,000 Operations performed annually in Worcestershire.

More cuts in bus subsidies and services may also make getting to hospitals - requiring several bus journeys - even more problematic; particularly for the elderly.

The NHS in Worcestershire tells us that “Worcestershire’s elderly population is growing at more than 3% each year, which is above the national average” and that “The NHS in Worcestershire wants to help older people stay active, well and living in their own homes for as long as possible and to do this, we are starting to think differently about the sort of healthcare services we need” and that “new technologies and medicines are improving outcomes for patients but are also costing more.”

Yet “the NHS has been set a challenge to improve its efficiency by 20% over the next three years. In Worcestershire this means we need to make savings of at least £200 million across the local NHS, including £50 million from the Acute Hospitals Trust by 2014/15”.

High hospital buildings costs and skilled medical staff salaries do make doing nothing now not an option, the NHS tell us, but a few seconds just signing a petition will not alone prevent change. 

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