Tatton Ward to be discussed at board meeting (From Knutsford Guardian)
Send us news by text, start your message Knutsford News and your send photos and videos to 80360
Tatton Ward to be discussed at board meeting
9:00am Sunday 17th February 2013 in News
By James Wilson
Tatton Ward to be discussed at board meeting
THE results of a series of consultation events regarding the future of Tatton Ward will be discussed at a board meeting in March.
East Cheshire NHS Trust is holding a consultation into the permanent closure of the ward at the Knutsford Community Hospital, which runs until Sunday, February 24.
The results of the process, plus the meetings held in Knutsford and further afield, will be heard at the trust board’s next meeting that takes place in the town at St John’s Church Hall on Thursday, March 28.
A health campaign group, led by Charlotte Peters-Rock, told the Guardian she had attended all of the six consultation meetings and had counted 106 people in attendance.
But a spokesperson for East Cheshire NHS Trust said bosses were surprised at the amount of people contacting them online.
“We had quite a bit of comment, both online and face to face at the consultation meetings,” he said.
“This will be presented at the next board meeting of the trust and the board members will look at those comments. A lot of the data is anecdotal with individual responses and personal comments, while with the raw data it is about identifying the points that have been made.”
PetersRock says...
10:48am Mon 18 Feb 13
Where so blatant an attempt is made to exclude the public, it is hard for anyone to be able to say that this has been in any acceptable sense, a 'public consultation'. Yet the closure of Knutsford's Tatton Ward, has completely overloaded both of this Trust's other Intermediate Care Wards, at Macclesfield and Congleton.
For the people of the Knutsford area, it means more distant, overloaded facilities, and less chance of visitors.
But this affects all elderly people in need of hospital care, right across Cheshire East.
Of teh six 'public consultation' meetings, in early December, the first event in Knutsford, drew 9 people, of whom I had personally informed 7. The second in Macclesfield, drew 5 people, of whom 4 had also attended the first event.
After Christmas, following Cheshire Area for Cheshire Action's extensive publicity of the events in Knutsford, the third event, at St John's Church Hall, overfilled the room with people vociferous in their need to reclaim and retain our local NHS services.
The fourth event at the AP Club in Holmes Chapel, hit a serious problem, in that the entire premises was known by locals, to have closed for good, on the previous week - also no publicity had been done in that area, by the Trust. So I sat there for two hours, with several Trust officers.. and no other member of the public.
The fifth event, back in Knutsford's Community Hospital, was cut back from two hours to one; and was the only event held in the evening. The hospital's waiting rooms, corridors and a large room down the corridor, were packed for the whole hour, and longer, by people unmistakably keen to reclaim and retain our local NHS services.
The last event, held in a totally unpublicised way, at Wilmslow Leisure Centre, produced only me for company, yet again. A couple from Mobberley arrived - just as Trust employees were packing up early - to restate the need for local facilities to be retained.
Whatever is seen as the outcome of this peculiar non-public consultation, what is certain is that everyone was saying: 'we need our local facilities to be reclaimed and retained'.
I am aware that many people, have also written in to the Trust to similarly state the case. There is still time to write in with your own views (until 24 February) - ecn-tr.Tatton@nhs.ne
t or write to: Tatton Ward Consultation, Macclesfield District General Hospital, Victoria Road, Macclesfield. SK10 3BL - mark it 'Tatton Ward Consultation'.
East Cheshire NHS Trust, is currently - in a very low key way - attempting to gain public participation, to achieve Foundation Trust status. I believe that it must first listen to the public, and take action on the essential public need for services, if it is to re-establish any right to public trust. I believe we need our Tatton Ward reopened, until there is another local facility built,equipped, fully staffed and ready for occupation.