We want your views on hospital changes (From Bucks Free Press)
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We want your views on proposed changes to Wycombe Hospital
11:54am Monday 23rd January 2012 in Health By Lawrence Dunhill
We want your views on hospital changes
THE Bucks Free Press is asking readers what they think about plans for a major transfer of beds out of Wycombe Hospital.
We want to you to tell us what you think – and send in anecdotal evidence to support your view.
If you feel Wycombe should retain the services, tell us why, giving examples if you can. Why is it unreasonable to send more Wycombe patients to Stoke Mandeville?
Or if you support the centralisation, tell us what the benefits would be for patients. Have you experienced improved care in a specialist unit?
NHS bosses say patients needing an overnight stay for medicine, respiratory, gastroenterology and diabetes services should no longer be treated in Wycombe.
Elderly patients with long-term conditions are likely to be most affected.
The NHS Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Cluster collected the views of about 570 members of the public before publishing the proposals – saying a majority supported the changes.
But John Barlow, a former non-executive director of the NHS in Wycombe, questioned the way the survey was conducted, saying it asked leading questions to produce the desired answers.
The plans would bring the closure of 67 beds at the Queen Alexandra Road hospital, across at least four wards in the tower block.
The Emergency Medical Centre would be downgraded to reflect these changes - with urgent medical patients being directed to Stoke Mandeville or Wexham Park hospitals instead.
Wycombe Hospital would still cater for medical outpatients and remain a specialist centre for stroke and cardiology.
Its breast care unit will be enhanced under the plans, with a new assessment unit for elderly or frail patients to be developed.
The plans, laid out in a consultation document called 'Better Healthcare in Buckinghamshire', would mean Wycombe Hospital sees about 7,600 fewer people per year - a reduction of about three per cent on its current activity.
Health chiefs say focusing medical and A&E expertise on a single site will save £2 million per year and provide “more specialist, better resourced, higher quality service overall”.
But critics say they have not dispelled concerns over transport – adding a town the size of Wycombe should not be losing more hospital services.
Wycombe’s main A&E and maternity wards have already been moved to Stoke Mandeville in recent years.
Email your views, with anecdotal evidence if possible, to ldunhill@london.newsquest.co.uk Or post a letter to: Lawrence Dunhill, Bucks Free Press, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, Loudwater, High Wycombe, HP10 9TY.
Please include your name, age and the road you live in, but indicate if you would prefer your details to not appear in the newspaper or website, or be passed on to the NHS.
Comments(8)
Catflap
says...
3:05pm Mon 23 Jan 12
geoffW
says...
4:00pm Mon 23 Jan 12
Catflap wrote:There is one question.
Why, they don't count for anything
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When will the current site close completely?
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This is what it is all leading towards. A smaller "unit" will be built somewhere else with a big hoorah because it is "State of the Art". The current site will be sold off to developers at price (much higher than the cost of the new "unit"). The executives will tyhen receive a nice little bonus for making money!
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I am sure they will say "There are no plans to sell off the site ... at the present".
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The whole thing has been drip fed for the last few years. It is getting smasller and smaller each year and then they will say that it "makes no economic sense to keep the current hospital".
EmmaWhittington
says...
4:04pm Mon 23 Jan 12
miccles
says...
9:50am Tue 24 Jan 12
And where were these people based?????
The majority of people's views, in South Bucks is "Give us our Hospital and services back".
Joe Ordinary
says...
10:58am Tue 24 Jan 12
Thanks for your continuing efforts to ensure that the health services being offered to folk in South Bucks are appropriate, effective and efficient and for your efforts to ensure that we are kept aware of what is being done by the NHS on our behalf/in our name.
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I know that you are aware that there is a current 'Better Healthcare in Buckinghamshire' Consultation process in hand. Rather than risk wasting your time attempting to conduct a random survey which, because of its nature, is unlikely to generate any meaningful / evidence based results why not encourage your readers to actively participate in this Consultation process so that the views of a meaningful number of Patients, Carers and members of the public are made known to NHS Management.
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John Barlow has also been admirably active in his continuing efforts to ensure that the health services being offered to folk in South Bucks are appropriate, effective and efficient however his criticism that the NHS Survey 'asked leading questions to produce the desired answers' is merely that, i.e. a personal opinion unsupported by evidenced facts, and - as such - not worthy of serious consideration.
MC jones
says...
3:53pm Wed 25 Jan 12
My mother was recently admitted as an emergency and the staff at the hospital acted fast & saved her life. She was in Ward 4B for a week & the care she received there was amazing. The staff have to cope with such difficult situations but rarely get recognition for the hard work they do & this is how they are repaid for doing a fantastic job!!
In an emergency, Stoke Mandeville is 40 mins at best & with a lot of cases time is often a matter of life & death. How can these so called Health Chiefs put a value on life, shame on you! How can taking away excellent services from a brilliannt hospital & transferring them to hospitals which are already overstretched be a good idea? Give the public some credit please! I hope people will fight to stop this hospital being killed off as I know I will!
Emma179
says...
4:03pm Thu 26 Jan 12
The maternity unit is now a dangerously long journey for any in the Wycombe area. Even if there are no complications it is a long way to drive and be in labour. I recently had to spend 3 days in Stoke children's unit with my son and the trek is significant when it takes 50 mins to get there. I had to wait till 11.30 at night (4.5 hours after they made the decision) to wait for an ambulance to transfer me from Wycombe to Stoke as Wycombe is not open at night. It has all the provisions but just no staff.
If I needed to get to hospital in a hurry with one of my kids, it again is a 50 min journey on a good day. Never mind if it is busy or icy or anything else.
No-one I have spoken to supports this decision. Wycombe is a large town with a large number of families and others that need to use the hospital regularly and yet some fat cat at the top typed a few numbers in a calculator and made 1 add 1 equal 3. So no, it doesn't matter what I think. The powers that be have decided and therefore I am just wasting my time along with thousands of other people who feel the same!
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