Trust Loses £735,000 in VAT on Land Deal

[steveL]

Wright is a hospital campaigner? I know I've been down to the smoke for a few days but things can't have changed THAT much.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/health/hartlepool-hospital-trust-loses-735-000-on-land-deal-mp-demands-vat-refund-1-7255697

[for fawkes sake]

What people are waiting for is the inevitable planning application to build housing on the former 'hospital' site which will turn Wynyard into Hartlepool's own Ingleby Barwick . . . which was the plan all along, of course and I wouldn't be at all surprised that Musgrave and Foster now see themselves to be in the final stages of one of the biggest con tricks ever played on the people of Hartlepool.

[marky]

and here it is. Not the application but the green light to the developers.....


http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/people-will-get-the-chance-to-have-a-say-on-hartlepool-s-new-local-plan-from-later-this-month-1-7912342

[Alnwickist]

Slipped in last week, timing is essential.....

H/2016/0185   
Land at North Pentagon
Wynyard Park
BILLINGHAM

Residential development for the erection of up to 109 dwellings with associated access, landscaping, and engineering works

[Alnwickist]

Belcher claims 3900 houses have been approved, that can't include Wynyard surely ?.

[not4me]

Belcher claims 3900 houses have been approved, that can't include Wynyard surely ?.

Think they're playing loose with the truth here and talking about final applications and not outlive planning permission the figures for those will be much higher. I heard 7,000 is nearer the mark.

[Inspector Knacker]

So, where does this leave us hospital wise ?
Hartlepool is history, the Johnny come lately cheerleaders tried to 'save the ship' when the ship was sinking , so is North Tees to be expanded ?

[Truthache]

We have a hospital that is a greatly underused resource.  I believe hat the NHS Trust would like to provide more from the HGH site but it requires extra funding from the local Clincal Commissioning Group.  So far that funding is not forthcoming.  Would he NHS Trust prefer to provide a Minor Injuries Unit back at HGH, probably yes, not a full blown A&E but basically One Life back at the General.
A&E provision nationally is under scrutiny with fewer centres, but major trauma units supported by Minor Injuries Units and Walk-in centres.  HGH won't ever return to what t was, all NHS Trusts are required to develop Sustainable Transfer Plans, which aim to provide more health treatments in the community setting...not in hospital unless absolutely necessary.  NTH is required to plan along those lines.  The NHS is changing...for better or worse, but it is changing.  Perhaps Hartlepool residents need to start letting the Clinical Commissioning Group exactly what we want to see provided at Hartlepool General.

[Inspector Knacker]

So we can take it the money's going to be spent at North Tees then ?
As for the trust, I have more belief in the tooth fairy.

[Truthache]

I don't know where the money will be spent.  What money?  The NHS Trust was £7.3M overspent, like many NHS Trusts in England.  More savings are being demanded by he government in this current financial year and a Trusts required to show a surplus!  Tall order without cutting service I believe.

I believe in the NHS and will make the case improved access to services locally at every opportunity.  I also believe that people need to consider the role of the Clinical Commissioning Group in determining local provision of hospital based care.  They have the budget to buy the services from any provider they choose.  Urgent Care provision is out to tender, what happens if NTH Trust don't get the contract next year? 

[SRMoore]

Urgent Care provision is out to tender, what happens if NTH Trust don't get the contract next year?

Let's hope they don't. Durham hospital is actually closer for many living in the North of the town. Perhaps we should be looking for another provider since the current one is clearly not up to the job.

[Truthache]

A new provider of an Urgent Care service wouldn't necessarily mean any new locations.  A new provider could be a private option paid (by the CCG) to operate in existing facilities.
Personally I have no complaint over the quality of care delivered through Urgent Care at North Tees and believe that Minor Injuries would be better at the HGH rather than One Life.
Durham may be more easily accessed than North Tees from Easington but not for Hartlepool or Sedgefield residents.  So that isn't likely to happen in my opinion.
Full return of services to HGH is unlikely due to the lack of intensive care consultants which resulted in centralising ICU at North Tees.  That hasn't changed and therefore limits the range of services which can operate on the HGH site...sadly.  There are however some lower risk services operating at he site which could be added to.

[steveL]

The whole hospital saga can be traced back to the original decision to merge Hartlepool Hospital Trust with North Tees. That one decision set a ball rolling which was always going to be difficult to stop. Those with a good memory will remember the then Chairman of Hartlepool Hospital, Russell Hart, being given a 150% pay rise from £20,000 to £50,000 a year for his two-day a week job at the same time as the merger was proposed.

Nothing of any good has ever come out of the wholly artificial idea that Hartlepool is part of Teesside - the people of Teesside have never thought so and neither have the people of Hartlepool and, if the truth was known, the current hospital Trust see the inclusion of parts of South East Durham into their catchment area as an anomaly that they would quite happily off-load elsewhere.

While we're on the subject, has anyone else noticed the subtle change of wording regarding the use of the hospital land in the new local plan?

[for fawkes sake]

Personally I have no complaint over the quality of care delivered through Urgent Care at North Tees and believe that Minor Injuries would be better at the HGH rather than One Life.

. . . and the £20m cost of building the One Life Centre is dismissed in a moment.

If moving the UCC to the Hospital is such a good move then why the need to build the UCC in the first place? Perhaps you are right, but I believe such a blase attitude to public spending is one of the chief reasons the NHS is in the financial mess it is. The UCC was going to be all things to all men according to the spin at the time as was the Wynyard Centre which also cost millions but descended into chaos within months and ended up as an over-elaborate GP practice.

I don't know if you ever saw the Geoffrey Robinson documentary which was based on Rotherham Hospital but the quality of the hospital management on display was simply frightening with a Chief Executive who would have struggled to operate the local ALDI store, let alone a hospital trust.

[Truthache]

I don't ever take spending £20M lightly and I certainly don't propose closing One Life, just moving the Minor Injuries Unit back to the HGH site.  One Life houses GP practices, various clinics, X-ray facilities etc. which many people access (including me), so it's closure is highly unlikely and any attempt to do so would be unpopular I suspect.
When the decisions on building One Life, transferring work from HGH to NTH,  I was at another NHS Trust in the north east.  The decision to opt for a new hospital with no apparent plan B was a mistake in my opinion.  The Transforming Newcastle Hospitals Project was extremely successful in renewing and expanding the RVI whilst staff and patients continued to use the site.  That project was driven by the need to have an A&E centre with Neurology on the same site.  If that hadn't happened the teaching hospital status was under threat which was unthinkable.  So A&E temporarily moved to Newcastle General where Neurology was based.  Both then came to the RVI site after reconstruction work was completed.  Oh, how I wish HGH and North Tees had considered a similar plan to improve and extend the two hospital sites rather than throw everything into a single new hospital.  So now, I just want to see patients in the Trust catchment area get the best care possible as close as possible to home.
On the subject of Geoffrey Robinson taking an outside view of NHS Managers, I did follow the series with interest.  I seem to remember his frustration at how implementing proposed improvements often hit obstacles with old habits returning after brief periods of promise.
If you want to see examples of public money being wasted consider the National Audit Office report into the Connecting for Health I.T. Project...£11 BILLION I believe.  Politicians can waste public funds faster than anybody I have ever encountered in the NHS.