Consultation Feed Back for Ashburton Buckfastleigh Community Hospital Future

A personal response sent to TSDH  NHS Care Trust

Question 1 - Bearing in mind the information within the consultation document where would you like to see inpatient care* provided for people from communities in and around Ashburton, Buckfastleigh and Bovey Tracey?

None of the above are acceptable. The Board need to understand that there is a distinct difference between Ashburton/Buckfastleigh Hospital and Bovey Tracey, and that it is disingenuous to put both together.  

A&B Community Hospital was provided by public subscription 120 years ago and run through public subscription for many years. Today it has an active League of Friends, and because of its proximity within the Town is easily accessible both by residents of Ashburton and Buckfastleigh and surrounding areas that it serves.

Despite what many residents concerns regarding the flawed nature of the consultation, and the lack of information provided at two packed public meetings, residents made it clear both to TSDH care trust officers and the  CCG present that they overwhelmingly wished the hospital in beds to remain.

Before any decision can be made regarding whether better health care can be provided at Newton Abbot hospital, perhaps all the facts and figures regarding the cost to running Ashburton Buckfastleigh and Newton Abbot could be made available, and how any savings made would actually be used. To date there has been no business plan provided that maps out what improvements there would be to the ‘care in the community’ both meetings were told about, and no explanation as to why the CQC web site does not site Ashburton Buckfastleigh Hospital as being not fit for purpose.

At the Buckfastleigh meeting the director for Estates made reference to a Plan B which involved moving beds from Torbay to Newton Abbot hospital - this option needs to be brought forward to the public. Assertions were also made about the building and its facilities, which would appear to be cosmetic rather than clinical.

No BIA (Business Impact Assessment) was provided at the meetings, and such an assessment would need to consider both the dedication of the staff and the concerns we all have about the travel arrangements to and from Ashburton, Buckfastleigh and our surrounding communities - which to date have been presented as a discussion point, but no actual solutions.

Keeping beds at Ashburton Buckfastleigh Community Hospital must be the preferred option.

Question 2 - What are the most important things to you, or to your family, when it comes to inpatient care? (Please tick the three options that you feel are the most important)

The options as posed in the question make assumptions that those options are the only ones available and that Torbay Hospital is the hospital of choice.

Patients have the ability to chose the hospital of choice, and certain conditions may dictate that specialist hospitals outside the area are more appropriate.

The options do not list the quality of care offered and the CQC web site contains some interesting information on this and hospitals.  Residents of Ashburton Buckfastleigh want to be able to visit and receive visits from family and friends. They want a hospital ward to be friendly staffed by caring individuals, and with more elderly patients an assurance that their dignity is not subject to abuse or compromise in any way. They wish to see that the after care follows seamlessly from GP to hospital to care in the community to GP. It is regrettable that  this option is missing.

Question 3 - If inpatient services were transferred to Newton Abbot Community Hospital, we would be able to accommodate a range of new local services in the vacated space. Which services would you like to see provided for local communities from Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Bovey Tracey and the surrounding areas?

Again as at answer to question 1 it is disingenuous to put Ashburton Buckfastleigh and Bovey Tracey together. They are separate communities with their own identities and aspirations.

As yet the case for inpatients services going to Newton Abbot has not been proven, and it is surely the job of the Clinical Commissioning Group to decide what services they wish to commission where, and tender for suppliers.

It is also incumbent of the Care Trust to consider what services it is able to supply in the location with inpatients beds in-situ and add value to the hospital for the community rather than step down the offer.