Health bosses sideline Shipston in hurried public consultation on location of community beds
Health bosses were accused of betraying the people of Shipston as they pushed on with plans to exclude beds from the new Ellen Badger Hospital development.
This included a vote passed yesterday (Wednesday) at a meeting of the county council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) that will slash a public consultation on the location of in-patient beds from 12 weeks to six weeks.
Campaigners vowed to fight on this week as even before the consultation begins, a report put together by Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) ahead of the HOSC meeting suggested Shipston was not a suitable site for some of the county’s proposed in-patient beds.
The ICB proposes consulting on whether south Warwickshire’s 35 community beds should be at three locations (Shipston, Stratford and Leamington), or just two, leaving out Shipston.
However, there was no option that included the new hospital, instead the report included the beds at the inadequate old hospital ward rather than within the plans for the new building.
In the report, which Shipston mayor Cllr John Dinnie (Lib Dem) said was full of inaccuracies and very misleading, the ICB asked the HOSC to endorse speeding up a consultation on which location option to go for. It was passed after chair Cllr Jo Barker (Con, Shipston) used her casting vote after councillors were split.
The sudden need for speed was queried by Shipston campaigners who have fought for years to ensure community beds are part of the new hospital.
Plans for a new hospital with beds at the Ellen Badger Hospital (EBH) were revealed by South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust in 2019, but it began back-pedalling on those plans in 2020, saying it would be contingent on a bed review.
Four years on and the bed review has still not been made public. The ICB told the Herald this week that the review would be available only once the shortened consultation had begun.
Campaigners were especially worried by the dismissal of Shipston as a location for inpatient beds based on the assessment of a half-demolished building.
The report, written by Amy Danahay, ICB programme lead, said: “The inpatient area at EBH has been retained during the construction of the new building. However, due to changes in the building’s footprint, the facility can now house only 12 beds. While the EBH building is retained, it does not comply with acute inpatient guidance. Significant capital investment is required to address issues like asbestos removal, catering reinstatement, back-up generator installation, new windows, and IPC compliance.”
Former NHS boss and chair of the League of Shipston Hospitals Bryan Stoten reacted with fury to the “dishonest” report.
“To say the footprint has changed is absurd – what they mean is they pulled it down. They have literally knocked the men’s ward down and gone ‘oh, the footprint’s changed’.
“Everyone knows the old hospital is unsuitable, that’s why we gave them two-thirds of a million to start to build a new one. The dishonesty is profound.”
He added: “They are taking the people of Shipston for fools.”
The report proved to be the final straw in a long battle for Mr Stoten, who said he was stepping down with immediate effect as the chair of the League of Friends.
“This has gone on for seven years and I can’t waste my life any longer.”
Returning to the subject, he said: “In the report the ICB acknowledges the potential negative implications of a shorter consultation period, but says ‘we’ll manage these risks with the support of specialists’. This is just word salad, isn’t it?
“I know the health service inside out, I’ve chaired every big organisation, I know what I’m talking about. And these people are part of the problem. As Professor John Bell, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford, said, the problem with the NHS is the managers just can’t do it. They don’t know how to do anything. And with this they are betraying the vision of Richard Badger [hospital founder] from over 130 years ago. The bloke had more brains and more visionary understanding of what could be done locally for people then than they do now.”
Although equally frustrated, Cllr Dinnie has not given up hope and wants to ensure people’s voices are still heard.
“The Beds for Badger Campaign Group wish to engage constructively with the ICB in looking at every possible way that the beds can be returned to the Ellen Badger Hospital.
“We have asked them to consider the options for community bed provision as well as the wider impact that making the proposed changes would have.”
Cllr Dinnie said SWFT is also obligated to pursue better lines of communication.
“The Major Service Change Handbook, which SWFT should have been following, requires engagement with campaigners (groups and individuals) to be involved in developing (ideally, co-producing) proposals and options that will then be consulted on. The Beds for Badger Campaign is ready to engage in that process.”
He also added that he was disappointed with ICB’s lack of integrity.
“The fact that the ICB is now choosing to meekly go along with the SWFT proposal without lifting a finger to help when they were going to independently review SWFT’s findings and actively challenge their result, beggars belief. I am particularly disappointed by Amy Danahay who I had thought was made of sterner stuff.
“They must realise that the policy climate is changing. The Lord Ara Darzi report [published this week] and the political reactions to it are pointing to investment in community health services and local services closer to where patients come from. Exactly what the fully integrated Ellen badger could provide.”
He finished: “We, the Beds for Badger Campaign Group, continue to fight for the townsfolk of Shipston, the surrounding village folk and all the country folk in between. We will not settle for second best. We will have the integrated community hospital we were promised.”
Lending her support to the community, Stratford MP Manuela Perteghella said: “The Ellen Badger has a strong tradition of care. It has provided care to the town and surrounding villages for generations of residents and there is huge public upset, and disappointment, and a sense of betrayal in trying to reduce the health services this community hospital provided.
“A replacement hospital, including in-patient ward, was promised to our community. It’s disappointing to see the recommendations. I have asked for a full public consultation.”
“Community hospitals with in-patient beds provide important integrated healthcare facilities, as well as employment opportunities to the local community.
“We know community beds enable most patients to resume independent living more quickly. This means that the loss of in-patients beds at the Ellen Badger Hospital will only lead to greater bed blocking of acute beds and leading, in turn, to longer stays in hospital than necessary, and in fact this will result in more costs to the NHS trust.
“My constituency is made up of an older demographic, we know we have one of the oldest local authority by median age population in the West Midlands. Therefore the provision of a comprehensive healthcare facility close to home is essential for our rural, elderly communities.
“The SWFT recommendations, as they stand, will have a disproportionate, negative impact on the provision of health service in our district.
“I am campaigning with the residents of my constituency for the Ellen Badger to be a fully functioning replacement hospital, and I have already made this clear to the CEO of SWFT and to the new Health Secretary.”
Both SWFT and ICB declined to comment at this stage.