The Kintyre Forum

Campbeltown Community Council understands that the majority of people are concerned about the reduction in hospital beds at Campbeltown Hospital. Are you concerned about this issue? Do you wish to put questions regarding the transfer of resources from Campbeltown Hospital’s continuing care beds into the Community? If so Campbeltown Community Council has arranged for NHS representatives to attend their next meeting on Monday 13th May at 7-30pm in The Victoria Hall. NHS managers have arranged to give a 20 minute presentation followed by 45 minutes of questions and answers. As Community Council meetings are public, all interested people are welcome to attend.

The MAKI Area Committee also wanted a public meeting to discuss the proposed methadone clinic in Campbeltown. The NHS have agreed to discuss this as a seperate agenda item after the discussion on hospital beds.

These are 2 very seperate issues but it is important for people to give their views and all those interested are most welcome to attend.

who from NHS will be there?

Hi,

Derek Leslie, Director of Operations Argyll and Bute CHP and Christina West, Locality Manager - Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay.

Dear All,

This is a polite reminder that the meeting is this Monday 13th May at 7-30pm in the Victoria Hall. All interested people are welcome to attend.

Please attend this meeting if you can.

In the region of thirty beds have been lost in the last ten years.

Care in the Community is all very well, but what about patients that need rehabilitation after illness or an accident? The fight for the Assessment Ward was lost. We can not let these closures continue.

Each patient is a living breathing human being, like each of us they have hopes and fears about their futures. They are not just a statistic on a piece of paper, whose future should be determined by the juggling of budgets.

In an aging population it is ridiculous these cuts are being made. There will not be enough space in the nursing homes for those who need that level of care.

In my Mums final months she was so ill the level of care she required was more than a nursing home could provide. She was fortunate enough to spend that time being looked after by the staff of Bengullion Ward.

What will now happen to patients like Mum? She was only fifty four when she died.."too young for a nursing home". I will be eternally in the debt to the staff of the ward for making a hard time that little bit easier.

I dread to think what would happen to Mum now if she was still in life. It was heart breaking enough to see her slip away, without the worry of where she would spend her final days.

If we continue to lose beds in the local hospital more and more of us will have to be cared for 'up the road' should it be Glasgow or Oban.

The practicalities of this as friends or family of a patient would be difficult at best. The time and expense of travelling to visit, getting toiletries, food/money to the patient and getting clothing washed and dried to name but a few.

How would you feel if you or your loved one had to spend their final days away from family and friends. This will not only have a detrimental effect on the patient, but the family and friends too.

Please attend tomorrows meeting.....we can not continue to lose beds at Campbeltown Hospital.

Did anyone on here attend the meeting and if so how did it go?

Shambles!!
NHS managed to evade every question on both subjects. No concrete information was given. As for the parting comment of 'whats wrong with someone being on methadone for 20 years, its just like being on insulin' - cannot believe that statement was made by someone in that position. Shocking

the ice maiden wrote:Shambles!!
NHS managed to evade every question on both subjects. No concrete information was given. As for the parting comment of 'whats wrong with someone being on methadone for 20 years, its just like being on insulin' - cannot believe that statement was made by someone in that position. Shocking

That is worrying to hear that it was such a shambles.

Was there a good turnout IM? Should there be two separate topics on these issues on here?

Unfortunately I couldn't attend but a friend of mine did, and I was gobsmacked when I heard about the insulin remark!!!

I would like to feedback my personal views regarding the public meeting.

A key role of a Community Councillor is to represent the views of the people within their area.

It was heartening to see the support of the general public with circa 176 people in attendance (including the NHS and Local Authority). Jamie Mc Grigor MSP also attended the meeting.

The MAKI Area Committee had also approached the NHS to discuss the proposals for a Methadone clinic in Campbeltown. They received agreement from Mr Leslie to discuss this after the meeting to discuss the hospital beds was publicised. As this was also a contentious issue it was agreed to discuss this at the same public meeting as a separate agenda item (with hindsight I think 2 separate meetings would have been more productive).

At the outset it was explained that these were 2 very separate issues and that there was a roving microphone and people would have the opportunity to ask questions after each presentation if they indicated by putting their hand up.

Regarding the reduction in hospital beds, the arrangement was to have a 20 minute presentation followed by 45 minutes questions and answers. The three presentations went on for 45 minutes! The question and answer session was orderly and the NHS were left in no doubt about the feelings of opposition to the closure of the hospital beds.

The presentation regarding Methadone resulted in some people heckling at times and ignoring the roving microphone, unfairly in my view as it deprived some patient people awaiting their opportunity to speak. The strength of feeling against the Methadone clinic was obvious. In the interests of fairness I was hoping for views from both sides of the argument. I was pleased when a brave service user with the courage to speak up, in what must have been a most intimidating environment, did manage to state her view that there was a need for the service locally.

I believe that if the NHS wants to engage in genuine consultation then this must include public meetings in addition to their planning meetings. I think it was a very positive exercise in showing the professionals the true strength of public opinion in Campbeltown and wish to thank everyone who attended for such a good turn out.

Over sixty beds ten years ago to twenty one today. Where will the cuts stop?

I asked a question about continuing care for patients too ill to be looked after at home or at a nursing home. I still do not know what will happen to them.

My mum was a MS sufferer and spent the best part of her final years in Bengullion Ward. She could not move, she had difficulty swallowing, was prone to seizures and did not have mental capacity. What will happen to other poor souls who can not stay at home for their own safety and whose care requirements are more than a nursing home can provide?

End of life care will be provided for, but at what stage of an illness does it become classified as end of life?


The methadone debate got very intense as Andy said, there was a lot of shouting out going and not everyone got their chance to speak as a result.

My heart went out to the former service user who had the courage to stand up in the hall and say that this is a service that the town needs.

The numbers of people that are receiving treatment at present and the number of others that use the Glasgow needle exchange were an eye opener to a lot of people. I do not think a lot of the hall realised the extent of the problem we have in town, and were shouting out in disbelief when the figures were announced.

I feel that none of our questions were answered. Where people were giving examples of their own experiences they were told to speak to a member of staff at then end. We were not giving the examples because we wanted to discuss individual cases, but to gain an insight what will happen to patients in the future.

I felt that the local staff spoke well about care in the community. However, I found the panel were hostile and that our views would not be taken on board.

I feel that it is very much a done deal that hospital beds will be lost and the clinic will open.

I am not sure what our way forward from here will be? Do we fight the cause or wait and see what happens?

This was published in 2011 so the figures will most likely be much higher now, this is part of the reason NHS make cuts, people need to know where the money really goes. Bonus's more than a wage, not a one off bonus mind you, they get the bonus year on year till they retire.

http://forargyll.com/tag/nhs-scotland/
Sunday Herald investigation reveals double top bonus for NHS consultants
Posted on January 10, 2011 by newsroom
The Sunday Herald published yesterday (9th January 2011) the results of a sustained investigation into the way hospital doctors in Scotland are paid – and the totals this exacts from the tightly stretched public purse.
They began by focusing on the so-called Distinction Awards Scheme which costs us £28 million a year, noting that the British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland is so determined to stop the Scottish Government freezing these bonuses that it is looking at going to judicial review to try to prevent it.
However, the Sunday Herald’s digging discovered an ‘obscure’ second bonus – the Discretionary Points System – also paid to top consultants, bringing them another £25,632 per annum each and costing us a further £20 million a year. This ‘bonus’ would be an unusually high annual salary in Argyll.
Oh – and consultants nominate themselves for the Discretionary Points – so they’re worth it because they say they are. All we can say is that this high worth, so well rewarded, does not show in the performance of NHS Scotland.
On this Discretionary points system alone, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spent £6.6 million; NHS Lothian spent £4.5 million; and NHS Highland spent £1.15 million.
We’re talking about consultants who are already paid six figure salaries. We;re talking about bonusus which are paid as salary top ups – and are pensionable. And we’re talking about a powerful trade union, the BMA, which will fight to protect these bonuses at the cost of what the health service itself can deliver.
A very telling element of the Sunday Herald revelations was the comparative list it published of NHS Scotland’s spending for the year 2009-10.
• £46.8 million (and the paper notes ‘at least’): Bonuses for Consultants
• £43.4 million: Alcohol misuse
• £36.9: Health protection
• £21 million: Mental health legislation and services
• £21 million: Clean hospitals and MRSA screening
• £17.7 million: Hepatitis C action plan implementation
• £12.3 million: Health screening
• £10 million: Healthy start
• £9.9 million: Specialist children’s services
• £6.2 million: Mental wellbeing
• £5.5 million: Pandemic flu
• £1.9 million: Tobacco control
Freezing these payments at their current levels and perhaps preventing any new entries to the systems for the time being is a pace to start, is known to be under government consideration.
This is what BMA Scotland is fiercely resisting.
The discretionary points system sees each of 8 possible points priced at £3,204 per annum and accumulating to the maximum of 8. The BMA wants these guys to carry on increasing their pensionable top ups when the rest of the country is losing jobs.
The problem with the more radical unravelling of this pretty obscene system is the familiar one the bankers use as well: the talent will go elsewhere.
There is a degree to which this will be the case but it needs to be rigorously interrogated.
People who will always be well paid make lifestyle choices as well as financial ones in deciding where they work. Those lifestyle choices are for their families as well as for themselves.
Where exactly would all the supposedly superbly talented bankers and hospital doctors go anyway?
And are all of these very highly rewarded and self-nominating consultants more than averagely competent?
The evidence does not suggest either extraordinary ability or extraordinary commitment in the Scottish NHS – and certainly not to the volume that we are paying to pretend exists.
We actually accept that jobs which are about making money for a private sector company can legitimately see performance rewarded proportionately through a bonus system. This is an incentive and it is defensible in this context – provided it is genuinely performance based, proportional and calculated on objectively measurable criteria.
In no other sphere are bonuses acceptable.
Other jobs – of any kind and in any sector – should set appropriate salary levels that are acceptable in context. Some of these would be – and should be – very high, to reflect serious responsibilities, seriously well executed by seriously able executives.
Appropriate salaries should be accompanied by regular performance measurement – with demotions or sackings as well as promotions.
We have to stop the disease of bonuses and expenses which is distorting our values, diverting money we do not have away from the development of the first class frontline services we need – and paying mediocrities as if they were stars.
For NHS Scotland to spend at least £46.8 million a year on pensionable bonuses for highly paid consultants when it spends less than half of that failing to make sure its hospitals are clean, simply cannot be tolerated.
And as for the BMA – call their bluff and get this stable cleaned out.