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Campaigner threatened with ejection at meeting about NHS beds for south Warwickshire




By Andy Mitchell

Local Democracy Reporter

A LEADING campaigner for in-patient beds at Shipston’s Ellen Badger Hospital was close to being ejected from a two-hour meeting on the consultation on the site’s future.

Prof Bryan Stoten, a former NHS Warwickshire chair and former chair of the hospital’s league of friends, cut in despite not having the right to speak at Warwickshire’s adult social care and health overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday (22nd January).

It came on the back of councillors being greeted by protesters with a camel outside Shire Hall ahead of the gathering.

The panel is made up of county, district and borough councillors. Members of the public can address the meeting provided they register in advance but they cannot speak outside of their allotted three minutes.

Prof Stoten was not among the public speakers but joined members of the public in derisory laughter as panel chair Cllr Jo Barker (Con, Shipston) sought to bring order amid cheering and clapping following comments made by Cllr Kate Rolfe (Lib Dem, Stratford South).

She had accused the NHS of “playing communities off against each other” with service options that “are like Monopoly, a numbers game”, adding that neither of the two options tabled for 35 community recovery beds to serve south Warwickshire were adequate.

Cllr Barker said: “This is a formal meeting on a consultation. I know people want to clap, shout or do whatever but we need to take this seriously.”

After the laughter, she added: “I am able to ask people to leave if you don’t. I don’t want to do that, so please listen and listen carefully.”

Baxter the camel was on hand to offer his support for the Beds for Badger demonstration outside Warwick County Council’s Shire Hall on Wednesday morning. Photo: Mark Williamson
Baxter the camel was on hand to offer his support for the Beds for Badger demonstration outside Warwick County Council’s Shire Hall on Wednesday morning. Photo: Mark Williamson

There were murmured and audible responses to unpopular answers as the meeting went on and things came to a head when Prof Stoten scoffed while Cllr Barker was in the throes of quizzing Laura Nelson of NHS Coventry and Warwickshire’s integrated care board.

Warwickshire County Council’s legal representative Caroline Gutteridge made a rare intervention.

“I think it is important that people are respectful of the meeting and the chair does have the right to ask people to leave,” she said.

Prof Stoten cut in and said: “I was shaking my head at the falsehoods, that’s all.”

Ms Gutteridge replied: “I think accusing people of falsehood is quite a serious thing to do in a public meeting.”

Cllr Barker made clear that Prof Stoten was walking a tightrope.

“If you have any more comments to make, I am going to ask you to leave because it is not helpful. It is a public meeting, you are here to listen,” she said. “We are really thrashing out what is going on here. It would be quite easy not to have anything like as much debate as we are having, we have been round and round and round on this.

“You were the people who called for this consultation in the first place so a little bit of respect for what we have done and how hard it has been would not go amiss.”

Bryan Stoten
Bryan Stoten

Prof Stoten asked: “Do you want me to speak?”

Cllr Barker replied: “No, you don’t have a right to speak at this moment. You could have during public speaking.”

He went to continue but an exasperated Cllr Barker banged the desk to get her point across. “No. Please. This is not your meeting,” she said.

Why the meeting was held

Cllr Barker said from the outset that the meeting was only to discuss the ongoing consultation on the rehabilitation beds, not the prospect of other services that may or may not be offered as part of the redevelopment of the Ellen Badger Hospital, Shipston.

The consultation is asking for feedback on two options for 35 rehabilitation beds – the first to split them across Shipston, Warwick and Stratford, the other to keep things as they are now and have them across Warwick and Stratford only.

The 35 figure was challenged throughout with NHS bosses, who advocate the Warwick and Stratford-only option, asked whether population growth had been factored in, plus travel considerations for patients and visitors, plus logistical and financial considerations.

Cllr Jo Barker. Photo: Mark Williamson
Cllr Jo Barker. Photo: Mark Williamson

Their response was that the numbers had been crunched and presented over many years and that advancements in, and the increased rollout of, home recovery meant that the volume would be sufficient now and in the future alongside other elements of on and off-site care.

Ms Nelson cited a “significant shift” in the past five years, adding: “For me, it is not necessarily around the bed and the projection, it is how we transform our services based on the population’s needs because we are not going to be able to build numerous hospitals all over. It doesn’t work like that.”

The data-led argument

Cllr Ian Shenton (Con, Arden) insisted he was not advocating either option but cited key issues having read through the NHS figures.

They included demand, logistics, accessibility for patients, visitors and staff and costs.

“Looking at the data, the demand from the Shipston area is two or three beds,” he said. “That means 80 per cent of the beds would be occupied by people from other areas. Those people would suffer longer travel times than if they were located centrally. I am not making any kind of point, those are the numbers.

“In terms of logistics, two locations seems to make some sense because you wouldn’t be duplicating effort, patient movements have to be factored in because you are moving people from acute wards into rehabilitation.

“Visitor travel times are a key thing. If 80 per cent are from other locations then more people are having to travel. Unless you have staff living in Shipston, that comes into it as well.”

He added that he was uncertain as to what the alternatives would be, particularly given the established level of demand.

Patients, not pounds…

Part of the opening presentation from Ms Nelson was about delivering the right volume of rehabilitation beds and services in the right places within the budget available.

Chris Bain, chief executive of Healthwatch Warwickshire, an independent organisation that represents the views of NHS patients and those who access care services, was keen to challenge that.

“I would like to join others in paying tribute to this committee and the Health & Wellbeing Board in surfacing these issues and in making sure they are given proper consideration,” he said.

“I have also found NHS colleagues very helpful in discussing some of these issues. Having said all of that, a series of issues have been clearly articulated, such as travel times, growing population, aging demographic and rurality.

“In the view of Healthwatch, it is not enough that we simply acknowledge they are issues. We need assurance that there are plans in place to deal with them.

“In a number of instances in the past – not now – we have urged the NHS and local government to provide services that fit the needs of the public. We have to avoid the tendency to make the public fit the services that are available.”



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