Letter to Chris White and others

I am writing to say thank you for your support in raising awareness of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s transport and car parking listening exercise outcome,  which helped to ensure all sectors of the community and the districts we serve were invited to be involved.

There were a wide range of views put forward, many of which were directly opposing, yet equally valid, particularly with regard to the funding of car parking and transport facilities.    After careful consideration of the full analysis and the comments received, the Trust Board agreed to the following car parking and transport arrangements: 

·         Blue Badge holders will not be charged for parking

·         A graduated car parking charging system will be implemented from August 2013 (37% of people chose Option 3)

·         A bus service will continue to be funded by the Trust to allow staff to travel between hospital sites as part of their working day

·         The provision of a morning and evening bus service will be facilitated between the hospitals sites on a fare paying basis as from 1 July 2013

·         Staff will be charged at 0.07% of their annual salary to park on the hospitals sites

·         A commitment to developing new car park facilities and promoting sustainable travel

The listening exercise revealed that: 

·         91% of respondents felt that it was fair to offer reduced parking to patients and visitors who attend hospital on a frequent or long-term basis

·         75% of people felt that disabled parking should not be subsidised by other users

·         70% agreed that the Trust should generate a small level of surplus funds from car parking to maintain and improve car parking facilities

·         66% felt that Blue Badge holders should get free parking

·         58% thought that free transport should not be provided for people to get to the hospital, with around the same amount of people agreeing that free transport should be provided for staff to get to work

The Trust is currently reviewing its car parking management contract and will continue to work closely with local transport groups with a view to improving the current car parking arrangements. 

There are no easy answers to the question of car parking and transport.  The responses received have been wide ranging, full and frank, with many helpful suggestions and comments.  This exercise has re-emphasised the need to work differently together, the complexity of the issues, the importance of accessibility and the choices the Trust has to make across all its hospital services in order to fund everything we need to. 

We have been able to build up a true picture of how our patients, visitors and staff access our services, where they come from, how long they stay on our hospital sites and their range of views on what they feel is a fair way to manage our facilities, now and in the future.   The exercise has also enabled us to establish some really essential links with the local community.  

My Trust Board colleagues and I have discussed the results in great detail and have based our decisions on the views expressed from the respondents, the discussions we have had in open forum, the Trust’s responsibility to delivering quality services within the money available and with the balance of what feels the right thing to do.

Note from the county council

Proposals to charge Blue Badge holders to park at St Albans City Hospital will be scrutinised by St Albans City and District Council’s Local Services Scrutiny Committee.

At a meeting on 4 April, the Committee will consider West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s decision to introduce parking charges for Blue Badge holders at the hospital. The Blue Badge disabled parking scheme allows drivers or passengers with a permanent disability to park near to where they need to go.

The Committee will also look at the Trust’s decision to stop providing a free bus service that takes staff and patients between three hospital sites.

The Trust has told the Council that the changes are aimed at making its transport and parking arrangements fair and equitable to all and financially sustainable. During March it will be carrying out a listening exercise with residents and staff about the changes which are due to come into effect on 1 April.

The Council passed a motion on 26 February inviting senior representatives from the Trust to the Scrutiny Committee meeting on 4 April to answer questions about the changes.

Councillor Robert Donald, Chair of the Local Services Scrutiny Committee for St Albans City and District Council, said: “There has been a predictably rapid and angry response from both local residents and District Councillors to these latest cost-saving proposals by the West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust. In the light of this reaction, Council has asked our Committee to scrutinise the decision of the NHS Trust Board to introduce car parking charges for Blue Badge holders and axe the inter-hospital sites bus for staff and patients. These decisions appear to penalise those who are disabled or have long-term illnesses disproportionately.

“We need to understand why the Trust came to this conclusion and ascertain how much additional income this will actually provide for the Trust to spend on clinical services in the coming year as opposed to increasing the profits of the car parking contractors. On behalf of the public, Committee members will robustly question whether there are other alternatives which would be more acceptable to the local community which could be introduced instead either to raise the necessary increased revenue or to make the savings. We will seek to use this meeting and the Trust’s current ‘listening exercise’ to explore whether this decision can be reversed and, if so, what the implications would be for the Trust, the District Council and residents.”

”We obviously want to hear from members of the public with any comments or questions about the decisions ahead of the meeting so that these can be put to the Trust’s senior representatives. Please email these to scrutiny@stalbans.gov.uk by March 25 and we will endeavour to take these on board when questioning Trust management.”

Following the simply appalling decision by West Herts NHS Trust to start charging blue badge holders for parking, we have launched a petition urging the trust to reverse this decision with immediate effect.

It can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FRS76FT – please sign it and let your objection be heard.

Despite hearing reports of progress in keeping the books balanced, the Trust has failed to explain the recent and sudden deterioration in Ambulance response times.

Firefighters have expressed grave concern over delays, and the police have been reported to ferry patients to hospital.  The Trust response was that they were hitting performance targets “extremely” which appeared to ignore the legitimate concerns raised by the County Health Scrutiny committee.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Nick Hollinghurst  said, “Hitting tightly defined targets and ticking boxes is one thing,
but performance and perceptions out here in the real world are what count.  Recent press reports are extremely disappointing, especially after the successful innovations which we’ve seen in the past.”

The Trust highlighted as a particular problems incidents where an ambulance is required to the follow up a response by a single
paramedic.  In addition handover delays at Hospitals have resulted in ambulances being unable to get back out to the next call.

The Trust have however promised that more specialised staff are being recruited and changes in the control centre are also being made.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Chris White commented: “We welcome the recognition that something must be done to improve this unacceptable situation.  The Liberal Democrats will be keeping a close eye on developments and will ensure that the Trust are held to account.”

A full copy of their letter to MPs and peers can be found here.

Local Liberal Democrats have expressed surprise and concern at a recent study which showed that East & North Herts Hospital NHS Trust appeared in the highest band for hospital mortality rates. (more…)

When the NHS White Paper was first debated in an early session of the Liverpool Lib Dem conference in September 2010, Coalition ministers were startled by the storm of well reasoned but strongly expressed criticism of Andrew Lansley’s plans – but they clearly listened.

An early concession was the retention of local council powers to scrutinise the way NHS services are delivered in their areas.

Next came promises that the massive centralisation of the new Whitehall-based NHS Commissioning Board would be diluted by the establishment of local offices more closely in touch with the family doctor services they are to administer.

Finally a concerted. well-informed campaign of medical professionals and think-tanks emerged from the Liberal Democrat’s Sheffield Conference this Spring to engage and debate with professional organisations, the Royal Colleges and groups of NHS trusts.

This has resulted in a series of important changes to be announced this afternoon:

– Secretary of State to remain responsible for an NHS that is free at the point of need
– GP commissioning of hospital services to be shared with other medical professions and with doctors responsible for hospital care and for specialised treatments
– Independent representatives of the local community also to be involved in commissioning
– Integration and partnership working are to be priorities for trusts and others who deliver secondary care and who may compete only on quality, not on price, and without “cherry-picking” easy-to-treat cases

.

Hertfordshire Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman, Nick Hollinghurst, said: “I am proud of the contributions Liberal Democrats made to removing potentially damaging elements from this Bill. With proper safeguards there is no reason why specialised diagnostics or treatments cannot be delivered within the framework of the NHS. If adopted, the changes we have fought for will give us a health service which combines care with quality; and continuity with innovation and growth.”

He added: “I particularly look forward to the new public health responsibilities that will be given to local authorities.”

A public meeting is being held next week in St Albans to discuss the future shape of local community health services.

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is holding the meeting as part of its consultation on plans to become one of a new generation of Community Foundation Trusts.

Interim Chief Executive Karen Taylor said: “We believe becoming a Foundation Trust will ensure that we are well placed to provide a range of high quality health services closer to people’s homes.

“We are facing many challenges and opportunities in the next few years and would like to gain local people’s comments and views on how best to develop our community services in St Albans, Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding area.”

The public meeting will be held in Committee Room 1, Civic Centre, St Peters Street, St Albans at 2.30 – 4pm on Tuesday March 22.