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HAVE YOUR SAY: Bigwigs maintain Whitby Hospital silence
IT'S two weeks since the Whitby Gazette called for action to fight for the future of Whitby Hospital before it is too late.
But it seems the paper's rallying call to Prime Minister David Cameron and Nick Clegg, The Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley and others in power who make the key decisions about Whitby Hospital, has fallen on deaf ears.
Tell us what you think about this - have your say at the bottom of this page.
We contacted the constituency office of Mr Lansley to confirm if it had received a copy of our front page article published two weeks ago today.
But they could not tell us if they had received the paper and could only say it would have been forwarded to the Department of Health.
So, we contacted the Department of Health who could not confirm if they had received it either.
Did you send a covering letter?
This is what we were asked by press officer Katrina Coutts from the Department of Health media centre and if so "it will take 20 days for us to reply", she added.
When, we asked what the Department of Health had to say about the situation at Whitby Hospital with staff shortages, fears over patient safety and the hospital having to close to admissions last month and the many calls we have received from worried doctors and nurses, we were told it was a "local issue" and "nothing to do with them".
Our request for an interview with Mr Lansley was also snubbed as he does not give interviews on "local" issues and we were told to contact NHS North Yorkshire and York primary care trust which runs the hospital.
But we've been there many times before.
It was Mr Lansley in his capacity as Secretary of State for Health who recently issued a revised operating framework for the NHS for 2010/2011 which requested additional management cost savings with the NHS in Yorkshire and Humber of almost 50% over the next four years.
Then, on Tuesday 6 July NHS North Yorkshire and York asked its staff for expressions of interest in a voluntary reduction in hours, career breaks, sabbaticals, unpaid leave or to take voluntary redundancy, resulting in the problems we see now.
The press officer at the Department of Health suggested our next port of call should be the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority – the regional body which holds the system to account and aims to improve service quality in the NHS.
But a spokeswoman said the issues at Whitby Hospital were nothing to do with them either.
"It's the PCT's responsibility to commission services for their local area," she said.
Staff connected with the hospital contacted us again this week with more fears over the hospital.
One local healthcare professional told the Whitby Gazette: "The trouble is, the PCT are very keen on developing a virtual ward in the community, but it could be very problematic for any of the GPs to cover effectively.
"Hopefully, the devil will be in the detail, and we'll get a favourable, sensible and safe outcome.
"The PCT want to save a substantial amount from the hospital budget, or "beef" services up.
"Now the latter sounds great, but we obviously can't put patient safety at risk, so while the GPs are keen on this, the back-up services – x-ray, diagnostics, physio, etc must all be in place for that to happen.
"A virtual ward, we keep telling the PCT, does not save money.
"We say make it safe, improve the service, we want to be part of an exciting new future.
"They say cut the costs, work harder and in unsafe surroundings and we'll let you stay for a little bit longer."
NHS North Yorkshire and York declined to comment on today's story.
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Weather for Whitby
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
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