Hospital closures
revealed
Gazette & Herald
www.gazetteandherald.co.uk
6th April 2006
By Jill Crooks
Health chiefs today revealed their plans for closure of community
hospitals throughout Wiltshire. Three options for closure
were outlined at a meeting in Trowbridge. But they all mean
Devizes, Trowbridge and Warminster Hospitals will shut. There
is also a threat to Savernake Hospital, Marlborough and Melksham
Hospital.
Option one
would mean only Chippenham Hospital would be saved. But it
would lose 46 of its beds and only the 20 in the stroke unit
would remain.
Option two
would allow for three community hospitals. These would be
sited at Chippenham, which would have only a 20-bed stroke
unit, Melksham with 50 beds and Savernake at Marlborough with
24 beds.
Option three
would also retain the same three hospitals but Chippenham
would have 50 beds, including the 20 stroke beds, Melksham
with 20 beds and Savernake with 24 beds.
Under all the options there would be only two minor injury
units instead of the present eight. These will be based at
Chippenham and Trowbridge and be open 24 hours a day. There
will also be just one maternity unit based at Chippenham with
14 beds instead of the present ten. The Kennet and North Wiltshire
Primary Care Trust must save a total of £54million -
at least £20million of it by the end of March, 2007.
A three-month consultation
period starts tomorrow and health chiefs will make their final
decision in July.
Why we must preserve Chippeham
Hospital - North Wilts MP Mr James Gray
"Why we all must fight for health MY experience in nine
years as an MP is that Chippenham Hospital provides an outstanding
service for the people of a very wide area. There are some
top class facilities there, like the stroke unit and the cardiac
department. And local provision of healthcare such as that
found in the hospital is exactly what the Government keeps
telling us we ought to have. It is a vitally important facility
for the whole area, and I shall fight to my last breath to
keep it open."
" That is where people power comes in. I am calling
together a campaign committee which will be launching a series
of activities over the coming weeks. I hope
to deliver one of the largest petitions ever
to Parliament. I will be asking for a massive letter writing
campaign to the PCT. You can also register your protest with
the form below. Let's see the post office
laying on extra vans to carry all the letters we shall be
writing.
I will be raising the issue actively in Parliament, and have
already applied for an emergency adjournment debate on it.
The Gazette and Herald and Lyneham Village Online
will help galvanise local activity against what no one in
the community with the possible exception of Patricia Hewitt's
turnaround director who started work this week actually wants.
We love our Chippenham Hospital, and will leave no stone unturned
in our campaign to keep it open.
Your help is needed, it would be very grateful if you would
photocopy the attached petition form and then use your best
to achieve as many signatures as you can within the next week
or two. Please return the completed forms to Zoë Mills,
Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 31 Market Place, Chippenham,
Wiltshire, SN15 3HP. |
