Dawlish Discussion

We are asking the people of Dawlish and Teignmouth to give their views on two options for the future of the community and hospital services. The 12-week consultation focuses on services at both the community hospitals – including the minor injury units, rehabilitation, medical beds, outpatient clinics, and urgent care outside normal hours.

GPs say they want to keep as many services locally as possible, at a time when the NHS is having to make savings nationally and across Devon, so it can reinvest the money to meet rising demand. The GPs – working with the League of Friends and patients’ representatives, as well as staff – have been looking at ways to reduce duplication, improve quality and deliver services that will meet people’s needs for years to come.

Three consultation events have been organised to give people the chance to share their views. They will be at The Strand in Dawlish (14 January, 1pm-3pm), the Alice Cross Centre in Teignmouth (15 January, 6pm-8pm), and Bishopsteignton Village Hall (22 January, 1pm-3pm).

We are also keen to talk to local organisations about the proposals, so any local groups wanting us to come to talk to them about these ideas are invited to contact Laura Jenkins on 01803 652556.

http://www.southdevonandtorbayccg.nhs.uk/get-involved/Pages/coastal-consultation-14-15.aspx

Thank you Flo.  I hope this gets as much attention from the 2000+  people who signed Mr Weeks' petition (which shouldn't be too difficult if it was all the work of this forum).

Here's a direct link to the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B5VZPZN

It's a simple choice - option 1 or 2 plus a handful of demographic questions, so only a minute or two of your time.   

Survey done

Survey completed. Thanks for the links. 

Thank you Flo.

Anyone wanting to hear an early presentation of the proposals can join us at the town council on Wednesday at 6:30, venue the Manor.  We have a guest speaker from the CCG to explain their ideas

Not really a consultation - first quesion doen't even offer an option of keeping Teignmouth Hospital MIU open.  This is a loaded question; quite understandably Dawlish residents will opt for option 1; however this will be used to say x number of people support closing Teignmouth. I'm sure the people of Dawlish do not want to unwittingly put a nail in the coffin of the first NHS hopital.

Please help us to keep Dawalish and Teignmouth MIUs open. You can sign here http://signme.org.uk/1034

I'm certainly not going to sign anything that the wretched Liberal Democrats have set up. Why aren't you lobbying your Westminster colleagues in government to stop their docile support of their Tory masters insidious privatisation of the NHS?? 

Sorry Judith, not going to play. You might want to exchange inults; but I'm more interesed in keeping a vital service for the people.

Trying to be constructive here

Cllr Cox is saying (Quite rightly) that the CCG survey only offers two different kinds of change.  There is no status quo option.

Given the powers given by the Government to the CCG system, they are legally entitled to say that is the extent of the choice allowed.  Doesn't make it right of course!

My question to Cllr Cox is:  "How does the current mix of services provided at Dawlish and Teignmouth compare to Option 1?"

Do our two towns gain anything from the proposed change in terms of new and better services?

I will ask the same question to the CCG representative at town council tomorrow night and report the response.   We can then compare their two answers and be in a position to evaluate whether to vote for Option 1 or sign the Lib Dem petition

(By the way, it is a bit sad to my mind that to get feedback from the campaign organisers on how their fight to save Teignmouth MIU you have to tick a box agreeing to general emails from the Lib Dems.  It's unhelpful to link the two and undermines the credibility of the campaign)

Thanks David. So you're admitting that you Lib Dems are toothless in this so-called coalition government. You have no say in the corridors of power and so you start up a petition!  Priceless!

Now I'm sure there's a law regarding not being able to email address harvest - don't people have to be given the option to opt out from receiving junk mail?  Particularly from a junk political party. 

Option 1 it is. 

Judith - In fairness, you have to tick to opt in to emails

My disapointment is that you then give carte blanche to all emails from the Lib Dems until such time as you cancel

It would have been better (In my humble opinion) to have the email opt in restricted to receiving emails relating to the MIU campaign

To be fair, you're right Michael. 

It's very simple I want Teignmouth and Dawlish MIUs to stay open. It's kind of important, bit more important than sterile arguments about the opt in/opt out controls on a petition platform. Thank you to the Dawlish people who have signed.

So what are the Lib Dems in Westminster doing about it???

And David, are you saying that you can tell whether people who've signed the Lib Dem petition are from Dawlish?

It's a genuine question Cllr Cox

Do our two towns get an overall better service if we agree to Option One ?

We are quite used to disparity between Dawlish and Teignmouth.   We have a much better leisure Centre and Teignmouth will soon have a modern Theatre with a cinema facility, for example.

Before I object to the CCG proposals, I would want to be assured that we are not rejecting an overall improvement in the service.

Cllr Clayson,  No.

Thank you Cllr Cox

As promised, I will ask the same question of the CCG representative tomorrow night and report the answer given.  If there is no overall improvement to the service it must give us all cause to question whether the proposed change is necessary

David, why aren't Lib Dems in Westminster fighting this? A simple question. 

As promised, a summary of what Dr Fox said to the town council last night.

He contends that the overall service to Dawlish and Teignmouth will be improved by Option 1, examples listed by him included

Improved access to X ray services.

Improved MIU by directly linking to the out of hours doctors service

Improved Acute bed care by creating one unit that specialises in this instead of running two units that try to offer both acute care and rehab care.

Improved quality of rehabilitation care for Dawlish patients by integrating with physio unit at Teignmouth.

He also drew attention to the current Dawlish and Teignmouth MIU services both treating half the number of patients required to meet the national quality standard, he said bringing them together resolves that.

He said that this was part of a strategy to design improved care services for the older population.  Apparently even within the context of Devon our locality has a higher than average elder population, with consequent health problems

The CCG has a £25 million black hole predicted in its finances at 2018, and this is part of the plan to deal with that problem.  He said that this was a reason why no option 3, to keep the status quo

The town council has voted to support option 1

Thank you for the feedback Michael