Save East Dulwich Hospital Petition

[squashedtomato]

The Petition to Save the Hospital will be at various locations throughout the Parade on Saturday. If you haven't already done so Please sign it.

[Marmora Man]

WHY?

The NHS will be under severe financial pressure for the next 5 - 10 years and probably longer. If everyone campaigned for their local hospital and services to remain exactly where they are, frozen in time there can be no change. While the NHS will always be costly, sensible change will allow it to become more cost effective. With Kings, Guys and St Thomas' all within a 30 minute public transport journey I cannot see a great case for retaining some minor NHS services in a Victorian building that is not fit for purpose at the, metaphorical, "end of my street".

Sensible amalgamation of services in better premises - but within reasonable reach will benefit more people by allowing available funding to be spent more effectively on wider services.

PS: The NHS could also stop funding Homeopathy, Chiropractice, Osteopathy and similar services as well to spend the money on more effective, and evidence based, treatments.

[Sue]

Marmora Man Wrote:

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> > PS: The NHS could also stop funding Homeopathy,

> Chiropractice, Osteopathy and similar services as

> well to spend the money on more effective, and

> evidence based, treatments.

xxxxxxxx

?? I was very grateful to the osteopath who put me right when I put my back out, but would have been even more grateful if I hadn't had to pay for it - didn't even know it WAS available on the NHS!

[James Barber]

Hi Marmora Man,

Kings College Hospital is fine for acute treatment. However, at times it runs out of beds and has had to run Kings College Hospital wards out of disused Lewisham Hospital closed wards. Hardly satisfactory or cost effective. Several East Dulwich residents have talked to me about needing intermediate care but could only receive this at Kings in acute wards. This must be a dreadfully expensive way to provide this intermediate care. Also, they suggested the staff just weren't set up to provide this and those residents were extremely dissatisfied with the service they received.

Dulwich Hospital has been providing intermediate care beds as well as other primary care type services for decades and users have been happy with it.

I don't see costs savings in closing it. I don't see happier tax payers and residents by closing it.

I bet no Kings College Hospital manager has ever shared with Dulwich Hospital staff the bed per night costs they should be aiming for and what they currently cost. If they haven't shared this information its becuase they're not looking for value for money but have prejudged the outcome they want.

[jr]

Whoa there lesley!

Get your facts straight Mr councillor. King's don't own Dulwich and have no beds there. Southwark PCT is who you want. I bet you're wrong actually too.

[EDOldie]

Make a great Waitrose. OMG what have I said?

[Eileen]

For me the key issue is intermediate beds for people who no longer need to be occupying expensive acute beds but are not well enough to go home for whatever reason. Other relevant local PCT and some hospital services could be grouped along with such a facility. I went to the meeting advertised recently by the campaign group and discovered it isn?t about saving buildings per se but precisely about the need for intermediate beds plus other relevant and ancillary services across GP, PCT and hospital facilities. The discussion also included this community hospital being built on the part of the site that has already been demolished, so not just about recycling old buildings. It was still not easy to get the facts clear about the exact position on each part of the site, which authority owns what or even what their plans are or indeed that the campaign group has a sorted out position on those details.

So the bottom line for us locals seems for me - do we press for a facility for intermediate care beds plus whatever makes sensible ancillary provision? I doubt that we will have any chance of that at all without a local campaign for it. Having experienced major surgery in King?s myself in the last few years I am a strong supporter of the provision of intermediate beds as I could see around me and from my own position the need for such a facility. With the trend towards smaller and older households this is a trend that will increase not diminsh.

[Smiler]

What services are provided at the hospital at present?

[Tarot]

I agree with you Eileen, lets hope there is not a darker sub plot, where Southwark just wants to sell the land to build private housing on

[Eileen]

Smiler Wrote:

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> What services are provided at the hospital at

> present?

I have asked for info on this but hasn't arrived. I understand that it is a mixed bad of overspill from elsewhere and offices, and maybe some services that remained from previous times. IE it seems to be currently used as a spare facility without it being a planned coherent mix. That is the impression I got at the meeting, but I haven't got the facts. But I gathered that services for the local community hospital with intermediate beds would be planned from scratch, particularly obvioulsy if it was new buidling on the now demolished half.

[Eileen]

Tarot Wrote:

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> I agree with you Eileen, lets hope there is not a

> darker sub plot, where Southwark just wants to

> sell the land to build private housing on

Just to avoid misunderstanding, Southwark in this case probably means Southwark NHS and not Council. IT is likely that all the land belongs to some bit or other of the NHS. I say likely as I just don't know the facts, but I'd be suprised if this is Council property at all.

[cate]

Smiler Wrote:

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> What services are provided at the hospital at

> present?

They have an x-ray department there, a phlebotomy department to take blood samples, a physiotherapy department and a midwife service. I am sure there are more services available but I don't know which ones. There is also an out of hours GP service available.

[BARA]

In addition to the above there is the Betty Alexander Suite which provides Out patient appointments for older folk including a 'one stop shop'type service for investigations i.e. falls, OT, Physio, Dementia Clinis and general assessment.

Social Services Occupational Therapy service, Social Services Out of Hours Team, Care Home Support Team. SELDOC.It also had a satellite Renal Unit - not sure if that is still there.

Site is owned in most part by Southwark NHS -