New Petition Launched!
Thank you to all the people who signed our petition to Save Frenchay Hospital. Unfortunatly it was dismissed by Patricia Hewitt MP and the 50,000 people who had signed were not listened to. We are now petitioning Tony Blair directly and the good news is that you are only a click away from signing.
Follow this link to sign the new e-petition to Save Frenchay Hospital.
Signing up is easy and can be done in a few minutes. An email is sent to you which you must open and click on the link inside to confirm your signiture. If you don't do this last step then your name will not be added to the list and your voice won't be heard.
Thank you to all the people who have donated, signed the petition and sent in letters of support from all over Britain and the World to save this internationally renouned hospital from closure.
A JUDICIAL REVIEW!
IN THE WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY 19 TH MARCH 2007, THERE WILL BE A JUDICIAL REVIEW IN THE HIGH COURT, LONDON , ON THE FAILURE OF THE SOUTH WEST STRATEGIC HEALTH AUTHORITY AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE PRIMARY CARE TRUST TO CONSULT WITH THE PUBLIC ON A PROPOSAL TO IMPLEMENT AN INDEPENDENT SECTOR TREATMENT CENTRE IN THE SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE AREA.
THE SAVE FRENCHAY HOSPITAL GROUP ARE IN SUPPORT OF A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC AND LEGAL AID APPLICANT, WHO HAS REQUESTED THIS JUDICIAL REVIEW.
A Statement from the Save Frenchay Hospital Group February 2007
The Save Frenchay Hospital Group is supporting a legal aid applicant who is mounting a challenge in the High Court on the proposal to place an independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) in the South Gloucestershire area which will serve as the hub, or central control, for others proposed in the South West.
An application for a Judicial Review of this proposal is felt to be necessary by the Group on the grounds that the ISTC constitutes a substantial variation in the way our healthcare is provided. Such a variation should be the subject of a public consultation exercise in order to inform the public and allow the views of the population affected to influence the proposal. The Department of Health however, take the view that the implementation of the ISTC programme is not subject to public consultation.
Leigh Day & Co, a leading firm of human rights solicitors, is bringing the case on behalf of the applicant. They advise that the ISTC programme should be subject to public consultation. They were successful last year in the High Court when representing Cllr Pam Smith of Langwith in East Derbyshire , who challenged the action a local Primary Care Trust in awarding the provision of healthcare to a private company, without public consultation.
Members of the Save Frenchay Hospital Group have, since its inception, been closely involved on the Bristol Health Services Plan (BHSP) under which the world renowned Frenchay Hospital will be demolished, against the wishes of 48,000 petitioners who believe that Frenchay is the most appropriate site for a new acute hospital. The BHSP maintained that it was not necessary to have two acute hospitals for the size of the population.
The close proximity of Frenchay Hospital to the M4, M5 and M32 motorways and the A4174 ring road, currently enables critically injured patients to be treated swiftly in its Accident & Emergency facility. If the BHSP proposals are not resisted the Group feel that patient safety will be compromised as the current A & E facility will be moved to the Southmead site and access will be impeded by traffic on the heavily congested Filton Road . Last year South Gloucestershire Council expressed their concern at the Plan and made a request to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health for the matter to be referred to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel for an unbiased review of the BHSP. This request was refused.
The SFHG are concerned that the BHSP will result in an inadequate and inequitable provision of healthcare for South Gloucestershire and East Bristol . If implemented, the BHSP will leave Bristol City with eight hospitals within its boundary whilst South Gloucestershire and East Bristol will have merely a community hospital at Frenchay (for which there is currently no funding). This hospital will only be staffed by nurse practitioners. There will be no doctors on the site as patients will be cared for by their visiting GPs.
In March 2005, NHS executives from the relevant Trust voted for 1230 acute beds over the Southmead and Frenchay sites, despite great public opposition. Three months after that date, they reduced the bed numbers in the proposed new hospital to 947, and explained that the shortfall would be made up by using beds at Weston super Mare, the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Royal United Hospital , Bath . The proposed new hospital at Southmead was planned to have 708 new-build beds but the Trust has asked for a quotation from the contractor for 50 less beds. As the 36-bed community hospital at Southmead is to be part of the new hospital, the resultant hospital may only have 622 beds. In 2003, the area had 1600 beds.
South Gloucestershire is the fastest growing area in the UK and more development is planned. In addition, the area has a higher than average number of elderly people who will require care.
The BHSP intends that 50% of patient care will be carrried out in the community and that figure may rise to 80%, despite the fact that community provision is woefully inadequate in South Gloucestershire .
We are supporting the legal challenge to the ISTC because we believe that the destruction of Frenchay Hospital was premeditated in order to clear the way for a private sector surgical hospital and we are protesting at the lack of public involvement on this issue. The matter will go to judicial review in the High Court in London on the week beginning Monday 19 th March 2007.
We ask the the public of North Bristol, South Gloucestershire, East Bristol and the greater Bristol area to show their commitment to saving Frenchay Hospital by donating to the Save Frenchay Hospital Fighting Fund by means of our website: www.savefrenchayhospital.co.uk .
