You may have noticed (or may not) an article in Thursdays' Mail tucked away on page 5 which reveals that Hartlepool has the worst out-of-hours GP service in the country according to a study carried out, somewhat ironically, by the Labour Party. The study also found that, faced with such poor service, patients nationally are going directly to A&E Departments instead – if they have transport.
The report is written with the intention of blaming the Tories for everything while the Tories themselves are saying the situation is primarily a result of the 'disastrous' new contract the last Labour Government signed with the GPs.
The report makes for an interesting read especially considering that Hartlepool has a Labour led council and an ex-agent of Peter Mandelson running the local PCT. The local council has been aware of how bad the situation is with out-of-hours GP service for some time. The Tees Valley Joint Health Forum produced a similar report sometime ago which gave patients in Hartlepool only a 15% chance of getting a GP appointment within a reasonable time. However, the council has never thought it to be a topic worth discussing.
You would have thought that such a report would, at the very least, have warranted The Mail asking for some sort of comment from SAB as Chair of the Health Scrutiny Forum, CAB as Leader of the Labour Group (it is a Labour report) or Steve Wallace as Chair of the local PCT - but that's The Mail for you.
I've put a link to the actually report below.
http://www.labour.org.uk/uploads/1e7671d5-b598-9cb4-2901-c3dc962c4fe2.pdf
(http://www.labour.org.uk/uploads/1e7671d5-b598-9cb4-2901-c3dc962c4fe2.pdf)
Moving off the topic slightly but isn't this yet another example of what a disgrace the Mail has become? A little piece, as you say, 'tucked' away on page five while the front page is taken up by the weekly 'Dog Bites Child' story. Why the Mail doesn't just jmove into the Civic Centre, I don't know.
Attended the Health and wellbeing meeting 17th July - below "Relevant facts" from the meeting
Early death rate from heart disease and stroke is higher in Hartlepool
Early death rate from cancer is higher in Hartlepool
27.5% of adults are obese compared to 24.2% in England
Rates of hospital stays for alcohol related harm are higher than avarage
31% of children are living in poverty (40% in disadvantaged wards)
Childhood obesity rate within Hartlepool is 24.4%, significantly higher than national avarage
Hospital admissions rate due to alcohol specific conditions in under 18s is greater in Hartlepool
Hospital admission rate due to substance misuse (15-24yr olds) is greater in Hartlepool
Hartlepool has 40% greater need that the national average in relation to serious mentall health problems and 14% higher needs for common mental health problems
Doctors need to work harder and sort these problems out
Isn't that a bit like saying that more cars in Hartlepool are clapped out so car mechanics should work harder or because our pavements are covered in dog sh**e the council should work harder to clear it up.
I'm no medical man, but at a guess I would say that if people ate less, drank less and smoked less then there's a reasonable chance their health would improve. That's not to excuse the plummeting standard of health facilities in Hartlepool - but that's a different matter altogether.
This reminds me of that story in the Mail on Sunday a couple of weeks ahgo that somehow wasn't picked up by the local rag - too 'off message' I guess.