* Consultation closed on 1st February

Cumbria NHS has completed a consultation on the future of local health services in the northern two-thirds of the county. The consultation was called "Closer to Home". It included five public meetings. About 400 people attended a meeting in Whitehaven Civic Hall on Monday 14th January 2008. Another meeting at Millom School was held on Thursday 24th January.  

The preferred option put forward by the Primary Care Trust (PCT) will retain consultant-led maternity and A&E at the West Cumberland hospital, and does not propose the closure of any community hospitals, there have been some serious concerns, some of which were addressed by proposed changes to the plans which emerged during the consultation.

a) The original document proposed to centralise all Major Trauma work in North Cumbria at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle. Many doctors and members of the public were concerned that this would represent too great a reduction in the service provided by the West Cumberland hospital to be a safe and sustainable way of protecting the interests of patients in West Cumbria.

However, the PCT and Acute Trust have changed their position on this following strong pressure from doctors and the community, and now recognise that trauma care should be provided at both the West Cumberland and at the Cumberland Infirmary.  

b) the proposals include significantly fewer beds, both at the West Cumberland and at Cumbria's Community hospitals. Originally it was suggested that there would only be 192 beds, including 20 community hospital beds, at the West Cumberland Hospital. (There are currently over 300.) This was a matter of some concern to clinicians at the West Cumberland, who did not consider that this was enough beds to meet the needs of the community. The Acute Trust is now putting forward that there should be a minimum of 220 acute beds at the West Cumberland Hospital with an option to increase this to 250 if the planned efficiency improvements cannot be achieved. Copeland Conservates believe that the original proposals were not tenable and we support as an absolute minimim the 220 acute beds now promised by the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust: we welcome that the need for beds will be annually reviewed with the option to increase to 250.

 c) Complex surgery and out-of-hours emergency surgery is proposed to be discontinued at West Cumberland Hospital, and patients affected will be transferred to other hospitals, of which the nearest is the Cumberland Infimrary in Carlisle. We are further advised that patients at Millom Community hospital requiring complex surgery may be transferred, not to Whitehaven or Barrow, but to the Royal Lancaster or to Preston. It was admitted at the Millom public meeting that the trusts have not finalised their proposals on this: there will be a separate consultation later in 2008 about hospitals in South Cumbria. 

d) Critical information, such as how many extra patients per year will be transferred to other hospitals was not yet available at the start of the consultation. We have beem advised that the number of extra transfers from West Cumberland Hospital as a result of "Closer to Home" will be approximately 2 out-of-hours emergency surgery cases per week.

We recommend that anyone who cares about local health services should follow the local press for information about these issues, and that we should all continue to take an interest following the end of the formal public consultation. You can monitor the response of the PCT to public comments at the consultation website, which is

www.closertohome.org.uk

Copeland Conservatives' formal response to the consultation, submitted by PPC Chris Whiteside, was as follows

"Copeland Conservatives endorse the comments on the "Closer to Home" proposals made by both Copeland Council and Allerdale Council. We would particularly like to emphasise the following issues and concerns.

Firstly, the PCT and Acute Trust must learn from the difficulties experienced during this consultation about the need to improve communication with clinicians, GPs, other staff, and the public. Although there were eventually some welcome improvements made in the proposals as a result of feedback, particularly from Consultants at WCH, it was painfully apparent for most of the consultation period that the efforts made by the trust to engage with consultants and GPs were not working as well as we would all have wished. The commissioning model in "Closer to Home" will not work unless all GPs can be far more effectively involved with the process than many of them evidently were with the consultation.

Secondly, while the revised proposals for care of patients with significant trauma do appear to be a significant step forward, we wish to reiterate that the original form of words in the consultation document would not have been acceptable.

Thirdly, we welcome the proposals to invest more money in the ambulance service: this is and will remain a key part of providing medical care in an area with the sort of geography which Cumbria has, and it will be necessary to work to improve it.

Fourthly, while the new Acutue Trust proposals for the number of beds at West Cumberland Hospital have gone some way to reduce our concerns, we believe that it is essential not to implement any bed reductions in Acute or Community hospitals until replacement services are fully in place. The number of beds proposed in the original consultation document was not in our view adequate.

Fifthly we consider it most important that the issues raised during the consultation affecting stroke care and palliative care continue to be addressed.

Sixthly we are concerned that Millom and South Copeland to some extent fall between the areas affected by the "Closer to Home" consultation and the separate consultation for South Cumbria expected later this year, especially as regards trauma and emergency care. It is extremely important that the Millom and South Copeland area does not lose out as a result of this status.

Finally we believe that the financial model for the proposals will need to be very carefully monitored to ensure that it remains sustainable.

We welcome the constructive dialogue that community representatives have had with the PCT and acute trust over the past few months, and particularly in January, and look forward to working with them for better health care in Cumbria.

Cllr Chris Whiteside
Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Copeland"

3) CATS

Also on the local NHS, it now appears that the government has abandoned the proposals to impose on Cumbria and Lancashire a national model for diagonostic and treatment centres.

While we always welcome improvements in our local health service, the CATS proposals were an attempt to impose a national model of care which would not necessarily have been right for Cumbria and might have endangered existing services at the West Cumberland Hospital and our cottage hospitals including Millom and Keswick. Local Conservatives, local doctors, NHS unions and other community groups had campaigned against implementation of the proposals as they were proposed or in any other form which might jeopardise existing services and we welcome the withdrawal of the national proposals.

However, the Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT) is still interested in the possibility of developing what they have described as a "CATS - like solution". If such a solution does come forward it will need to be carefully examined. We believe it would be a mistake to implement CATS in any form which might jeopardise existing hospital services.

4) POST OFFICE CLOSURES

Eight post office branches in Copeland are to close as part of a programme, ordered by the Labour government, to shut 2,500 post offices throughout the closure.

Copeland's Labour MP voted against a Conservative motion to suspend the post office closure programme, and supported instead the government policy which includes the programme. Then within 24 hours his office was ringing round affected post offices offering to help support them !

The post offices in Copeland which will close (or in the case of Gosforth, where plans to re-provide the service will no longer be allowed to go ahead)are:

Beckermet
Bigrigg
Gosforth
Holborn Hill, Millom
Lowca
Moor Row
Parton
Tangier Street, Whitehaven


Councillors from both the Conservative and Labour parties, members of a wide range of community organisations, and other local residents, worked together to assemble a strong case, which was submitted to the Post Office by Copeland Council, that the closure proposals for West Cumbria were badly thought through, undesirable, and harmful. Sadly this has fallen on deaf ears.

Campaigns

1) Supporting local hospitals.We campaign to support local NHS services, including those provided by the West Cumberland Hospital, Millom Community Hospital, and Mary Hewetson Cottage Hospital in Keswick. See comments above about the mental health and "Closer to Home" consultations. Further details are given on our hospitals campaign blog, which can be found at

http://savewestcumbriahospitals.blogspot.com/

2) Digital TV Switchover. Local Conservatives have been monitoring the Digital TV switchover, which began for most of the constituency on 17th October 2007 when the Analogue BBC2 signal was switched off in the Whitehaven TV area. This affected those who get their terrestial TV signal from the Bigrigg transmitter and those which re-broadcast it at Gosforth and Eskdale, but not those who get their signal from Parton or St Bees, or residents of the Millom area who are part of Grenada.

For those who receive their TV signal from the Bigrigg, Gosforth, and Eskdale transmitters, all remaining Analogue channels were switched off on 14th November 2007. The rest of the constituency will switch over with the remainder of the Border TV area in Summer 2009 or with Grenada.

Local Conservatives are campaigning for some of the problems with this switchover, such as the overly narrow eligibility for the "Help scheme", and the limited digital service, especially in the Eskdale Valley, to be addressed.

3) Post Office Closures

Copeland Conservatives campaigned against the closure of eight post offices in the constituency.

4) Traffic and Parking Review.

There are currently a whole series of reviews taking place into traffic and parking issues in the Copeland area and in Whitehaven. Cumbria County Council is reviewing the traffic regulations in Whitehaven and the local road network.

Copeland council is currently reviewing off-street parking, and the effectiveness of its enforcement section. One aspect of this service which has recently been the subject of heavy criticism from local residents is parking enforcement. We are also aware that there is a great deal of concern about parking restrictions, one way systems, and traffic enforcement, and it has been suggested to us that the County and Borough Councils and the police are not good enough at working together on these issues.

Copeland Conservatives are currently conducting a survey on this issue. If you would like to feed your views and concerns into our survey, please email Chris Whiteside at chris4copeland@btinternet.com

Councillors

The following Conservatives serve as councillors in the Copeland Constituency

Cumbria Council Council -

• Sue Brown (Seascale Wicham)
• Norman Clarkson (Gosforth Ennerdale)
• Ray Cole (Millom)

Copeland Borough Council -

Copeland council comprises 31 Labour, 19 Conservative, and 1 Independent Councillor.  The Conservative councillors on Copeland are:

• Leader of the Opposition: David Moore (Seascale)
• Deputy Leader: Alistair Norwood (Whitehaven, Hillcreast)
• Alex Carroll (Whitehaven, Bransty)
• Norman Clarkson (St. Bees)
• Yvonne Clarkson (Beckermet)
• Ray Cole (Millom, Newtown)
• Eileen Eastwood (Seascale)
• Fred Gleaves (Millom, Holborn Hill)
• Francis Heathcote (Millom, Newtown)
• Keith Hitchin (Bootle. Mayor of Copeland 2008/9)
• John Jackson (Beckermet)
• Alan Jacob (Gosforth)
• Allan Mossop (Whitehaven, Bransty)
• Robin Pitt (Millom, Newtown)
• Bob Salkeld (Ennerdale)
• GIlbert Scurrah (Millom Without)
• Chris Whiteside (Whitehaven, Bransty)
• Doug Wilson (Haverigg)
• Andrew Wonnacott (Whitehaven, Hillcrest)

Allerdale Borough Council -

Allerdale council comprises 21 Labour, 19 Conservative, 4 Liberal Democrat, 11 Independent councillors and one who did not state an affiliation. No political party having a majority, an Alliance group has been formed to run the council in the best interests of all local residents. Conservative councillors are working with other parties within that Alliance group.

The Conservative councillors representing Allerdale wards within the Copeland constituency are:

• Leader of the Council: Joe Milburn (Crummock)
• Ron Munby (Keswick)
• Tim Heslop (Derwent Valley)
• Chris Garrard (Dalton)

Contact details for all these councillors are given on the relevant council websites, to which links are given below.

Links

The Conservative party's national website is www.conservatives.com

Conservatives in the North West: http://www.northwestconservatives.com

Other Conservatives in Cumbria:

• John Stevenson, PPC for Carlisle -  http://johnstevenson-conservative.co.uk
• Barrow & Furness Conservatives -   http://www.furnessconservatives.co.uk/
• Eden Conservatives -                     http://www.edenconservatives.org.uk/

  Local Councils: 

• Cumbria    http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/
• Copeland  http://www.copelandbc.gov.uk/
• Allerdale   http://www.allerdale.gov.uk/

JOIN THE PARTY ONLINE:

 You can join the Conservative party on https://www.conservatives.com/join/

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