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| Chipping Norton Hospital |
Chipping Norton Hospital Consultation – Public Meeting September 1, 2004.
From Robert Evans, County Councillor, Chipping Norton Division.
I was hoping to have had an opportunity to speak at the July 5 Public Meeting and I will be flying back from USA [where I have been at a family wedding] during tomorrow night’s meeting !
I would like to reinforce the following points some of which have been made in my earlier press release (see below).
- I support and have signed the petition that has been organized in the town to preserve the existing level of hospital services. I hope the PCT is able to bring some firm proposals about the continuation of MIU and X Ray in particular in conjunction with the Doctors’ surgeries and League of Friends and also the Maternity Unit in collaboration with the John Radcliffe. All public authorities must now feel a responsibility to encourage the continuation and further development of services in market towns against the economic and environmental costs of transferring most of them to a limited number of larger conurbations.
- There is a danger of the need for a replacement for Castle View EPH being lost sight of in the understandable agitation about hospital services. We cannot discuss one without the other. There is no alternative plan for Castle View beyond a partnership agreement with the PCT and OCP. It has to be this partnership or complete loss of an elderly people’s home in Chipping Norton.
Whilst concentrating a campaign on hospital services should ensure that our hospital does not just become an extended old people’s home, we must also understand that keeping the community hospital as it is means no Castle View.
- Let us first of all agree, as a community, what services we want and how we would like to see them delivered in the town and area before we start looking in detail at possible sites. There would seem to be consensus on the level and range of hospital and elderly people’s home services that we need; more work may seem to be necessary on the number of beds to meet current and future demand.
- Preserving and extending services in the long term mean a new building. Castle View will close and cannot continue in its current form and there are serious maintenance and conversion costs ahead for the Hospital Building.
- The precise site for a new building should now be determined by a separate and later consultation based on detailed plans and costings presented by the relevant authorities – OCC, PCT, OCP – rather than current widespread speculation about sites.
- At the last public meeting, people asked how ‘around town’ buses could be provided and financed if we have a new hospital/elderly home on a new site. These can be provided by Section 106 agreements for a new development [in fact OCC has currently suggested this with a commercial planning development in the town]. There is also an Area Review of CN bus services being undertaken by OCC and the Town Council has made this suggestion as part of their response to the review.
- There is understandable anxiety about a new building by OCP being a ‘private’ replacement for two public facilities, one of which was originally funded by public subscription. There needs to be careful negotiation at the time of determining the nature and extent of a new building and this should again be part of a more detailed building and site specific consultation. It should be possible to negotiate a part freehold stake for the community in both the land and the building. It would be interesting to calculate the current value of the original public subscription for the hospital and transfer that to the new building whilst also being aware that all such hospitals were legally transferred to the NHS in 1948. ‘Community and War Memorial Hospital’ can still be incorporated as heritage and titles within a new building. We need also to be aware that a new building initially built and maintained by OCP will revert to public authority ownership [PCT and OCC or successors] after 25 years and therefore give them and the taxpayers 25 years free of building and escalating maintenance costs.
Let us not be afraid of embracing change so long as we can mould it to our needs and create the opportunities for extending crucial health services for our own and future generations in Chipping Norton.
R. Ll. Evans
31.08.2004.
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"The current
A new hospital and older people’s home
Summary – Cllr Rob Evans says Chipping Norton has a unique opportunity to create superb health facilities for the future. For three years I have suggested joined up action on services between all the town’s health providers. But let’s not rob Peter to pay Paul –by giving us a brand new elderly people’s home joined to only two thirds of the services at our Community Hospital. It is high time to develop our market towns as major centres of services rather than outposts of far flung health empires. The current ‘No Cuts’ petition in the town has to succeed and the PCT should return to the September public meeting with firm agreements to keep minor injuries, X Ray and maternity in Chipping Norton. But we must be realistic on how we secure future services for the longer rather than short term. Staying in the current hospital building is a maintenance drain on PCT resources and may only keep services here for a short time. We should welcome the prospect of a brand new building for both our hospital and elderly people’s home whilst fighting for the full range of the ‘state-of-the art’ facilities we wish to see in it. Whether the site should be Castle View or the London Road should be decided later - there is simply not enough information on the finances, design or site values in the present consultation. Future generations will find it hard to forgive us if we do not fight for the fullest range of health services jointly provided in a brand new building for our community. The only alternative is complete closure and loss of Castle View elderly home and uncertainty over the future of the Hospital in its present building Chipping Norton has a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure superb health facilities for the future. I have long advocated joined up action on services between the town’s health providers. But this should not be done by robbing Peter to pay Paul –don’t give us a brand new elderly people’s home alongside only two thirds of the services we now have at our Community Hospital. Over 400 people at a recent public meeting made it clear to Cherwell Vale PCT that we would not tolerate a reduction in current services in a new hospital and elderly home arrangement. Our local doctors make clear how minor injuries and X ray – two services under threat – are integrated. The PCT have to realise that it is wasteful both of patients’ time and their resources to have us travelling to Witney, Oxford and Banbury for services and further clogging up Oxfordshire’s roads. It is time to develop our market towns as major centres of services rather than outposts of far flung health empires. The current ‘No Cuts’ petition in the town has to succeed and I understand the PCT will return with more positive proposals to the further public meeting on September 1st. We must also be realistic about how future services can be secured for the long rather than short or medium term. Some services currently delivered in hospitals and elderly homes will be provided directly in people’s own homes in future under government care plans and we must get our share of local resources for this. There is one factor that is not being realistically faced up to in the hospital consultation so far - the current and future maintenance costs of the Community Hospital building that we so love. The PCT spend around £150,000 annually on the capital and maintenance of the present building – that is 22% of the annual total expenditure of £678,000 on our hospital. Last year they spent twice what they expected on maintenance and in the next few years they need an additional £175,000 to upgrade the building.[1] Their consultation document states that the capital cost of operating in the building would ‘affect the PCTs ability to extend services’. Staying in the current building will only keep services for a short time in the town –and will clearly put them under greater threat in another few years unless a new building is contemplated. As a community we should embrace the offer of a brand new building combining our hospital and elderly home with open arms. Understandably there is considerable public anxiety about which site will be selected and the private-public relationship of a new build. In my view we should decide now on the principle of a new building and the full range of the ‘state-of-the art’ facilities we wish to see in it. We should then have a later and separate consultation on the financial arrangements, design and siting of the building – leaving both the options of the current Castle View and London Road sites equally open. The government produced its NHS Improvement Plan a few weeks ago. It pointed out that spending has doubled in the last 7 yrs from £37bn to £67bn annually and that in future 80% of NHS funding will be through the PCTs.. To quote from the plan – ‘patient choice will be the key driver of the system and resources will flow to those hospitals and other providers that are able to provide patients with the high quality and responsive services they expect.’ [2]. We certainly need our share of present and future PCT funding in Chipping Norton. We are more likely to get those high quality and responsive services in a new building than through a continuous struggle to modernise a Community hospital nearly 100 years old. The alternative is complete closure and loss of Castle View elderly home and uncertainty over the future of the Hospital in its present building. Future generations will find it hard to forgive us if we do not fight for the fullest range of health services jointly provided in a brand new building for our community. Rob Evans County Councillor Chipping Norton Division. 1.08.04 Notes :
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