Marlborough hospital Friends in counter attack (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Marlborough hospital Friends in counter attack

10:00am Thursday 21st May 2009

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The vast majority of respondents to a survey on the loss of services at Savernake Hospital think that it is now more difficult to access urgent treatment for minor injuries.

Ninety-nine per cent of the 600 people surveyed by the Friends of the Marlborough hospital say that the Minor Injuries Unit should be reopened and the same per centage want NHS Wiltshire, formerly Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, to take notice and act on the findings.

The survey was carried out following a similar survey taken by NHS Wiltshire and quoted by them at the recent hearing to strike out a judicial review of the closure of the MIU and the day hospital at Savernake. That survey said that the majority of users of the MIUs at Chippenham and Trowbridge were satisfied with the service there.

But health campaigner Val Compton said: “Very few Marlborough people use the MIUs there. They are most likely to go to Swindon and they are not happy about having to do that, the Friends’ survey has shown.”

As well as the responses about the MIU, 92 per cent of people who attended the day hospital at Savernake said they had never been consulted by the trust about the decision to re-provide the day hospital care at home. Ninety-four per cent said they would rather receive treatment at the day hospital than by the neighbourhood team in their own home.

The Friends of Savernake Hospital have also published a number of the 150 comments they have received, although the respondents’ names are not given.

One elderly patient who sustained an injury said: “It was just too complicated to find a way to get to Swindon or Chippenham, whereas neighbours were always willing to run you up to the local MIU at Savernake. I was so tired trying to work out how to get treatment, I simply went to bed and hoped I would be all right.”

Another wrote: “Why can’t trust decision takers care that these closures badly disadvantage sick older people who live a very long way from centralised facilities but have spent a lifetime paying the same up-front costs as everyone else for their health care. It’s not free at the point of service, it’s pre-paid by years and now it’s not there.”

Not all the comments are favourable, though. One says: “Times change. Small cottage hospitals are no longer cost-effective and it makes sense to focus health spending on large modern hospitals such as the one we’re lucky to have at Swindon.

“I object to the campaign which is ultimately a waste of tax payers’ money.”

Janet Louth, a member of the Friends of Savernake Hospital committee, said: “There was a gasp of horror in the court when the results of the PCT’s survey were read out. They were clearly surveying people in the Trowbridge and Chippenham areas.

“Most people round here would use the MIU at Swindon and that is run by a different PCT.

“That was why we felt it was important to run our own survey and the results bear out what we are saying.”

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