Paper Tigers (2)

[steveL]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/talks-over-design-of-new-hospital-1-5373052

I've said before about the choreography at play over the whole hospital issue. These Press Releases are a prelude to the closure announcement to be made in the next few weeks and are designed to soften the blow and shift the attention towards Wynyard.

The key phrase is:
"Lynne Hodgson, the trust's director of finance, information and technology, said: "Affordability is the key factor going forward.
"We need to make sure whatever funding option we use provides us with value for money.""

After all this time, the Trust is still talking about 'affordability' and the dependence on getting Government backing. Ask Foster today if he will give a 100% guarantee that the new hospital will go ahead and he would have to say 'No'.

There remains a real risk that the 'single hospital' will turn out to be North Tees - the Trust's original plan way back in 2002. If this happens, there will be no announcement that Wynyard will be cancelled. Instead, we will be told that it remains 'an aspiration' and that the Trust will still go ahead 'when the economic climate has improved'.

Ask yourself why a hospital trust needing to save £40m over the next three years would go to the expense of transferring the facilities and services at Hartlepool to North Tees only to have to transfer them again to a new hospital two or three years later.

In the meantime, the Assessment of Hartlepool Hospital appears to have predictably concluded that the hospital is 'unsafe', citing the Intensive Care Unit as being unable to follow all safe procedures because of staff shortages. Our own representatives apparently have, through their silence, accepted that the hospital will close with most appearing to be quite comfortable with that.

Apparently, both Ged Hall, the guy behind the neutering of Edna Wright's 'no confidence' motion, and Drummond are desperately trying to get themselves a position on the Trust as paid board members.

I'm expecting the closure announcement to be made sometime in April at the latest - earlier if the Trust finds the information control to be running away from them.
   

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

They take us for fools; that may ultimately be their undoing.

[SRMoore]

I spoke to James Wharton last week regarding the funding/gov approval issue and he has not been given any recent information relating to it which suggests to me that a decision isn't coming any time soon.

Unfortunately by the time a decision is made the University Hospital of Hartlepool will be closed.

[SRMoore]

What are you talking about Perseus??? I saw Iain Wright put the first shovel in the ground in February 2010. It was in the Mail and everything.

[fred c]

Spineless Lickspittles are looking after the health of Hartlepudlians.......... or rather.......... "Not looking after the health of Hartlepudlians".

[Inspector Knacker]

The illustration of the proposed hospital in the Mail was one of tbe vaguest images I've ever seen ...... a few oddly coloured blurred boxes, ...all rather fitting in the circumstances.The  Wynyard mirage appears appears at regular intervals but remains elusively on the horizon, always out of reach, an untangible illusion, but an unwanted illusion ....... we'll end up a town with a shoe box  first aid station and they'll tell us it's our brand new future, with a straight face.

[steveL]

I thought it was a good letter n the paper last night from dawkins. Funny how everyone in town seems to have the same opinion - well apart from the people who are supposed to be speaking up for the town, that is. Ever had the impression that things aren't quite working as they should?

[Inspector Knacker]

I've noticed that whenever something closes in our hopital, we're always told that the trouble  is that you just can't get the staff ...... when they advertise these posts, do they add a Kabul postcode to the end of the address where the applications should be sent to ....
Seriously though, how is it possible to get staff at an hospital in Stockton, yet impossible to get staff at a similar hospital fifteen miles down the road at Hartlepool both run by the same management? Sorry, but  it just doesn't wash.
Can you imagine any company with two factories of similar size fifteen miles apart producing the same product ran by the same company, where one  apparently couldn't recruit any staff and one had no trouble whatsoever, ....... no, me neither.