One of the best things to happen in years.

[Inspector Knacker]

According to comments by a councillor in the Mail.
The transfer of 'urgent care services' on April 1st has Ray saying 'I think it's safe to say this is one of the most positive moves that certainly Hartlepool has seen in a generation. Really ?
He goes on to say '... and I would congratulate the CCG  for taking the initiative, listening to what members of the public and councillors have told you over the last few years in putting this together'
They've just moved the location back to where it was in the first place. I think the public wanted their A&E back and most politicians were just mute bystanders for years when the hospital was having services salami sliced away
He went on even further 'For the first time in the history of Hartlepool we will have a GP led service available 24/7 every day of the year'
Wow, but not quite the same as the A&E we used to have, so what's changed apart from where it's at?

The CCG have apparently 'responded to the public wishes about having services at the town's hospital'.I suspect that isn't what the public had in mind.
It sounds good, but nothing's changed has it?

[steveL]

Wells is just a chancer . . . a back-door way of getting a Labour councillor elected in Rural West. He has n0 principles and his interest goes no further than the range of his over-powering body spray.

Try and marry up his comments with the more recent half-hearted action of the CCG to find a service provider to continue full fertility services at the hospital.

[Inspector Knacker]

I suspect some people are going to be really disappointed
What was the motive behind the move, listening to the public or financial ?

[testing times]

Basically, we have moved from having a full A&E Service, complete with full-time doctors and nurses, to a GP led first aid station. In the mean time, hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, have been wasted on building and running what turned out to be a very temporary 'Urgent Care Centre' in Park Road.

Mr Wells spins this as '". . . one of the most positive moves that certainly Hartlepool has seen in a generation."

The rest of us would describe it as proof positive that neither the council, nor the clinical commissioning group, nor the hospital trust have the faintest idea what they are doing nor are they the least bit bothered about the amount of money being wasted as they flip-flop.

[steveL]

I suspect some people are going to be really disappointed
What was the motive behind the move, listening to the public or financial ?

Money.

The contract to provide the 'urgent care service' at One Life (owned by Virgin care) was up and the CCG and Hospital Trust came to a 'mutually beneficial' arrangement to site the service back at the hospital.

I suppose we should be grateful that it didn't end up at the Jutland Road Community 'Ub

[Inspector Knacker]

I suppose we should be grateful that it didn't end up at the Jutland Road Community 'Ub

I can see it now, The JuttyJutty Ub and Community Bandage Centre or maybe not!

[kevplumb]

as a slight aside
who owns the one life and the land?
I assume the doctor's surgery will stay there?

[fred c]

Raymondo's idea & everyone else's of a generation are from opposit ends of the spectrum, with him, it's a case of all wind & p**s, a half a generation ago Hartlepools political representatives sat with their thumbs up their collective a***'s & let the A&E department slide into history.

Now, after his 'grandstanding performances' re. the fertility service he has obviously started to believe his own egotistical bulls**t spiel, this  urgent care move is as a result of the One Life contract ending & the CCG looking for the cheapest option....... what they are also hoping for is that we are all as stupid as they think we are, we aren't, there inability to find a provider for the fertility unit was, I am afraid to say, always going to the end result.

Quite how Raymondo thinks replacing a fully functioning A&E department with a glorified GP unit just doesn't compute, his claim of it being a  'Best Generation' decision is simply ludicrous, he has obviously been spending to much time in the company of the Dynamic Duo, Cwissy & Lying Ste...... A Raymondo Vision, perhaps 

[Inspector Knacker]

A champagne salesman selling lemonade.

[Inspector Knacker]

In the mean time, hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, have been wasted on building and running what turned out to be a very temporary 'Urgent Care Centre' in Park Road.

Just suppose it had been temporary and was expected to have a short life, to detach it physically from the hospital and break the link in people's minds ? But hey, that's just me imagining crazy scenarios.

[fred c]

From memory, I believe it was a £20million pound investment....... I wonder what could have been acieved with that kind of money if they had kept the hospital as a fully functioning unit ?

[Inspector Knacker]

I often wonder what the hidden costs of the closure of A&E were not just in medical terms. I wonder what the costs are financially and physically to older people travelling to somewhere like North Tees. I sometimes wonder just who the service is actually run for in access terms. I thought the 'general' hospital plus sub regional specialist centres as it used to be, was a good model. However, it seems we're quoted the better care line at these more central sites. Yet North Tees still sends the more specialist cases to James Cook, so isn't North Tees still just a general hospital in the original sense and nothing's changed, except we don't have a hospital anymore.

[craig finton]

didn't I read that Wells was one of the ones who accepted the recommendation to close the A&E?

[not4me]

'One of the best things to happen in years' Yes Raymond, like losing a tenner and finding a 50 pence piece. What a grade 1 Dork!

[Inspector Knacker]

'One of the best things to happen in years' Yes Raymond, like losing a tenner and finding a 50 pence piece. What a grade 1 Dork!

We must not forget the message is aimed at those who see the words 'returning to hospital' and make the wrong assumption, even those who realise it isn't what's wanted feel subconsciously reassured it's in the hospital.
It's throwing both ends of the rope to a drowning man..