One local hospital closure could have national significance at the general election, warns Mark Metcalf
Bridlington Hospital may be off the beaten track politically speaking, but its future could have an important role in next year’s general election. The reason? Labour’s failure to back a vigorous trade union and community campaign designed to save facilities and services at the hospital has enabled the Tories to step in and promise to restore them, if they are elected. This is certain to be further exploited by David Cameron and his party as they try to demonstrate their commitment to the National Health Service.
Bridlington Hospital brought together services from three former hospitals when it was officially opened 20 years ago. Local people had campaigned for just such a facility in the seaside town ever since the NHS was first mooted in the 1940s. Over the years, in a town where many elderly people live, support for the hospital has been shown by the many thousands of pounds raised to provide additional equipment.
So there was a mixture of shock and anger when, seven years ago, the local newspaper revealed that the Scarborough and North
East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust (SNEYHT) intended to close the minor injuries unit. Within days, thousands of people had signed a petition and the Save Bridlington Hospital campaign was launched. This was backed by the largest union at the hospital, now Unite, whose members have campaigned to defend its facilities.
In September 2003, the combination of workplace and community agitation led the SNEYHT to lift the threat to close Bridlington’s maternity unit. It also agreed to consult the union on any further proposed changes. In return, the union promised to lobby the Government for additional funds after it was revealed that the trust was nearly £12 million in the red.
However, almost three years later, it was announced that a new chief executive of the trust had been appointed to make cuts approximating to £9 million. These would involve moving maternity services, acute wards and the cardiac monitoring unit for heart attack victims to Scarborough. Seriously ill patients would have to undertake an ambulance trip of 22 miles on the often-packed A165. Once again, local people got organised. A petition attracted more than 40,000 signatures, hundreds packed out a public meeting and more than 2,000 demonstrated in support of the hospital.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson appeared to be listening. He agreed to ask the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) to re-examine the SNEYHT proposals for Bridlington. Meanwhile, Unite members organised what was the biggest-ever march in the town in which 7,000 people took part.
There was disappointment when the Health Secretary announced in September 2008 that he had decided to accept the IRP’s recommendation to transfer cardiac and acute medical services to Scarborough. Yorkshire Ambulance Service has had to find an additional £600,000 a year to ferry patients to Scarborough, even though the facilities at Bridlington were more than adequate.
There have also been reductions in maternity services at Bridlington. Expectant mothers now have to go to Scarborough and there have been a number of births in lay-bys en route.
Then, last month, it became clear that facilities for mental health patients at Bridlington were also to be transferred – probably to Hull, more than 45 miles away – when the lease on Bridlington’s Buckrose Ward by Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust expires in the autumn of 2010. This was another blow to the hospital’s future, especially as it came only days before the SNEYHT announced its intention to close another ward in preparation for an expected influx of swine flu victims. Unsurprisingly, campaigners reacted with scepticism.
All this has led Unite regional officer Terry Cunliffe to express fears that the hospital will soon nothing more than a “glorified health centre”. Cunliffe knows only too well just how run down the NHS was when Labour was first elected in 1997. Now he finds it hard to believe what the Labour Government is doing to Bridlington Hospital.
People who have never previously voted anything but Labour are now in a quandary. Local Tory MP Greg Knight has extracted a promise from Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley that the Conservatives will restore services to Bridlington if they win the general election.
Franco Villani, a Unite representative at the hospital, welcomed the Tory commitment. But he said: “I really wish we had the same from Labour. This may be a Tory seat, but the Conservatives will be able to use this commitment as a demonstration of their support for the NHS, which will play well with the electorate.”
