The summary articles in the table below related to the strategic health authority area are copied from the following pages, indicated in the table by key numbers.

  1. Charges
  2. Construction projects
  3. Resource shortfall Sources
  4. Treatment approval or not
  5. Withdrawal of Local Facilities - Sources
    Other
1 2 3 4 5

Summary articles
          Bristol's heart death rate 'twice UK average'. Jeremy Laurance, The Independent, 4 November1999.
          Arrogance, born of indifference to the views of parents, led doctors in Bristol routinely to remove children's hearts and other organs and retain them for years while mothers and fathers buried bodies they did not for a moment suspect were incomplete, an inquiry concluded yesterday. . Guardian, 11 May 2000
          A blow struck for dignity The Health Secretary's pledge to protect older patients is welcome. But it is scandalously overdue. On a bleak September day three-and-a half years ago, my 88-year-old grandmother, Irene Emmings, lay fighting for her life in a Bath hospital. After suffering a stroke, she had been rushed into the accident and emergency department where doctors stabilised her condition. At this point, she was abandoned by a system that had lost the will to care. Guardian Society Sunday April 1, 2001
         
          The government will today declare three NHS hospitals [two in Avon, one in Birmingham] to be failing patients so badly they must be taken out of normal health service management and be run by contractors, possibly from the private sector. John Carvel, social affairs editor Thursday December 19, 2002
          The new year opens with the national health service one step closer to a historical moment: the first NHS hospital being handed over to a private company to run. Eighteen months ago, the chief executive of the NHS was slapped down by the health secretary for even floating the idea. Twelve months ago Alan Milburn - undoubtedly under Downing Street indoctrination - became converted. Malcolm Dean Wednesday January 8, 2003 The Guardian  [two in Avon, one in Birmingham]
    3     An emergency review of the finances of a Bristol hospital trust has been ordered, following revelations that it overspent by £44m in the last financial year. Sarah Boseley, health editor Friday May 9, 2003 The Guardian
    3     Q&A: Bristol hospital overspend. The North Bristol NHS trust has run up a £44m deficit. How did it manage it and how will it affect patients and staff? Tash Shifrin reports. Thursday May 8, 2003
    3     An emergency review of the finances of a Bristol hospital trust has been ordered, following revelations that it overspent by £44m in the last financial year. Sarah Boseley, health editor Friday May 9, 2003 The Guardian
          Ministers have abandoned plans to contract out the top management teams at two of the three "failing" hospital trusts who were due to be taken over by either NHS experts or private firms. Tash Shifrin Monday May 12, 2003
    3     For years, the Bristol needle exchange has been funded by the local NHS. Then Whitehall accountants decided to impose "special measures" on the new primary care trust because it had inherited debts from the old Avon health authority. Nick Davies Thursday May 22, 2003 The Guardian
          Twenty-five people in one city [Bristol] have lost their vision because of a Treasury obsession with forcing unrealistic targets on the NHS without examining the consequences, a committee of MPs reveals today. David Hencke, Westminster correspondent Tuesday July 22, 2003 The Guardian
    3     The results of an inquiry into how North Bristol NHS trust ran up a £44m deficit will be published today, four months after it was originally due. Tash Shifrin Thursday October 2, 2003  
    3     NHS trust overspent by £44m 'to meet targets'. Tash Shifrin Thursday October 2, 2003
    3     A huge overspend at an NHS trust has been blamed on management failures. Tash Shifrin finds it could happen elsewhere. Wednesday October 8, 2003 The Guardian
          The government yesterday named and shamed hospital trusts where patients were most at risk of catching one of the most feared superbugs as part of a more aggressive campaign to reduce hospital-acquired infections in England. James Meikle, health correspondent Saturday December 6, 2003 The Guardian  [Acute NHS trusts with the highest rates of MRSA per 1,000 bed days for 2002/03: Lewisham Hospital 0.24, Epsom & St Helier 0.24, Dartford & Gravesham 0.24, Queen Mary's Sidcup 0.25, Countess of Chester Hospital 0.26, East & North Hertfordshire 0.26, West Middlesex University 0.27, Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals 0.28, Ealing Hospital 0.29, North Middlesex Hospital 0.30, Weston Area Health 0.30 ]
          An NHS hospital that opened just over a year ago under the private finance initiative yesterday admitted keeping a woman waiting in pain on a trolley for 88 hours due to a chronic shortage of beds. The Great Western hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, apologised to June Rogers, a 41-year-old training assessor, who arrived 10 days ago with a letter from her doctor requesting urgent treatment.  John Carvel, social affairs editor Saturday March 13, 2004 The Guardian
    3     Parliament's spending watchdog warned today that 71 NHS trusts in England went into the red last year, chalking up deficits worth more than £200m in breach of an obligation to break even. Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said he was concerned that the large deficits incurred by some NHS bodies might put at risk the financial stability of the health service. The worst of the overspends was in North Bristol NHS trust where "poor financial management and ineffective corporate governance procedures" caused a £44.6m overspend in 2002-03 - the largest recorded by an NHS organisation. The deficits came as extra resources were flooding into the NHS and ministers stepped up pressure to expand the service and reduce waiting times. The NHS budget in England rose from £47bn in 2001-02 to £53.5bn in 2002-03. John Carvel, social affairs editor Wednesday April 28, 2004 The Guardian
          A high court judge ruled yesterday that a hospital had breached its duty of care to a former nurse and health visitor who died of cancer two weeks ago. Helen Cooper, 51, who gave evidence from a wheelchair in the last days of her life, believed that her breast cancer could have been detected earlier if doctors had clearly explained to her the advantages of undergoing a second biopsy. Sarah Boseley, health editor Thursday October 7, 2004 The Guardian [Bath]
        5 A bundle of personal letters to Tony Blair and John Reid giving confidential information about people's bad experiences of the NHS has been found dumped in a paper recycling skip in Oxford and passed to the Guardian. It includes a petition with the signatures of 2,007 citizens of Cheltenham protesting about the partial closure of Battledown children's ward, in the local NHS hospital. John Carvel, social affairs editor Wednesday April 20, 2005 The Guardian
          Fifteen hospitals have been hit by outbreaks of the new strain of the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile which has so far contributed to 25 deaths, ministers have admitted. So far there have been 75 cases confirmed by scientists at the specialist laboratory in Cardiff - the only one in the UK equipped to analysis the new strain - health minister Jane Kennedy said yesterday. The statistics reveal the outbreak of the new strain, which last week was confirmed at a second hospital in the UK, is much wider than originally believed. Hospitals where the strain has appeared are in: Preston, Birmingham, Winchester, Bristol, Romford, Southampton, Truro, Carshalton, High Wycombe, South Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tees, Sunderland, Stoke Mandeville and Exeter. Debbie Andalo Thursday June 30, 2005
        5 Two community hospitals to close in Wiltshire. All beds at the Malmesbury and Devizes hospitals will close in the New Year. The PCT says the move is temporary, but campaigners believe they will be shut for good.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 15 December 2005
          A woman found maggots wriggling on her dying mother's face while she was treated in a hospital's intensive care unit, it emerged yesterday. Nyree Ellison Anjos spotted the fly larvae near a feeding tube at the Gloucestershire Royal hospital. Her mother, Christine Ellison, died soon after. Her daughter spoke out yesterday after learning that another part of the hospital had to be fumigated when maggots were found on a sandwich. Steven Morris Tuesday December 20, 2005 The Guardian
        5 A third of acute hospital beds will be lost due to Southmead Hospital development, claims MP. Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman, says one in three acute hospital beds in north Bristol and South Gloucestershire will be axed under plans to replace the existing Southmead and Frenchay hospitals.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Bristol Evening Post 20 December 2005
      4   A high court judge yesterday ordered NHS managers to pay for a woman with breast cancer to have the unlicensed drug Herceptin until her legal challenge to require the health service to fund her treatment could be heard. Ann Marie Rogers, 53, has borrowed £5,000 to start treatment privately, but cannot afford a year's course of the intravenous drug, which is being administered every three weeks. She is seeking to force Swindon primary care trust in Wiltshire to pay for Herceptin, which trials have suggested halves the chances of the aggressive HER-2 form of cancer returning after a year. James Meikle, Health correspondent Thursday December 22, 2005 The Guardian
    3     Operations restricted in North Somerset due to deficit. Patients with non-emergency and outpatient appointments will not be referred to hospital throughout January in an effort by North Somerset PCT to save £3.5m. The PCT aims to finish the financial year only £2million in the red after an agreement with Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA. The decision could apply to any of the large hospitals in the area, including Weston General Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Southmead and Frenchay. A spokeswoman said: "North Somerset PCT has today decided that it will manage all non-urgent activity for the remainder of the financial year, while still ensuring no patients wait longer than the national targets specify."   Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 23 December 2005
  2       Hospitals feel pain of funding problems. The FT says the Department of Health's decision to review the St Bartholemew's and Royal London PFI project "is a symptom of a deeper malaise affecting large-scale PFI hospital projects". Patricia Hewitt has hinted that in future there will be more reliance on "LIFT" (local infrastructure trusts) and fewer big PFI hospitals. An NHS executive said: "My guess is that Birmingham, and Barts and the London, will go ahead. But they will be the last of the mega-deals". Other PFI projects that could be in doubt include the £700m rebuild of University of Birmingham Hospitals. Minutes from a board meeting of financial regulator Monitor show that the DoH asked Monitor to approve the scheme's affordability - a request that was refused on the grounds that the guarantor, not the regulator, should carry the commercial risk. Treasury officials are known to be sceptical about four big projects in Liverpool worth £1bn. Schemes in Bristol, Plymouth, Hertfordshire and Leicester could also be in question. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Financial Times 27 December 2005 (subscription needed to access FT articles)
          Police are investigating the death of an 18-year-old sufferer from muscular dystrophy who had been admitted to the Royal United hospital, Bath, with a sleeping problem. Alec Newton, 18, weighed 3st (19kg) when he was taken to hospital in November. Two days later he suffered hallucinations and had trouble breathing and also contracted an infection and suffered from diarrhoea, according to his mother, Pamela. His family said that they were concerned about whether he was given the right course of drugs and said they had still not been given an official cause of death. Friday December 30, 2005 The Guardian
        5 Beginning of the end for cottage hospital? An 11-bed in-patient ward at Tetbury Hospital in Gloucestershire has closed. Cotswold and Vale PCT cut funding for 6 of the beds, making the entire ward unviable. Now there are fears over the future of the rest of the hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 4 January 2006
    3     Five-month minimum wait in Bristol. Bristol South and West PCT has told United Bristol Healthcare Trust, which runs Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol Children's Hospital and St Michael's Hospital, that it will only pay for operations that are clinically imperative or where the patient has been waiting for more than five months. Affected conditions include hernias, varicose veins, gall bladder and gynaecological problems. The PCT has told UBHT that if its instructions are ignored then it will not pay for the work. The restrictions were revealed in a letter from United Bristol Healthcare Trust, in which medical director Jonathan Sheffield said: "The local health community is now in a difficult financial position, which it will not be able to continue to operate under if expenditure continues at the same rate…We currently have no plans to cancel patients who already have dates for their admission agreed in January, although we are being asked to do this. We recognise that this agreement appears to penalise those specialists that have taken the greatest strides in reducing maximum waiting time and improving the quality of service for their patients."  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 9 January 2006
    3     West Hospital overspend is up to £5.5m. The predicted deficit of Weston Area Health NHS Trust, which runs Weston General Hospital in Weston-super-Mare, has risen from £4m to £5.5m. The increase is largely due to a lack of referrals to the hospital. The trust is axing 29 non-clinical jobs as part of its bid to balance the books. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 11 January 2006
        5 Don't shut our little hospital, we'll run it. Campaigners against Cotswold and Vale PCT's decision to cut 15 beds at Fairford Hospital are considering running it themselves. The League of Friends of Fairford Hospital has offered to pay £75,000 to try to keep the beds there for six months, and is considering whether it is possible to take the hospital from the NHS completely. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 11 January 2006
  2       Billion-pound hospitals plan faces collapse. Ministers are considering scaling back or cancelling about ten PFI hospital building schemes, including projects in Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle, due to concerns over cost. Under payment by results, hospitals do not have a guaranteed income and due to patient choice they could potentially close, leaving the Department of Health worried about the viability of the PFI. 24 PFI schemes with a total capital spend of £2.1bn have been completed. 14 more schemes, worth £3bn, have been approved. A further £12.1bn worth of projects are awaiting approval. A DoH source told the Times "Ministers are considering how to make it clearer that PFI schemes have to make financial sense. They are looking at how we got into this position and how to avoid it happening again." Patricia Hewitt ordered a last minute review of the St Barts and Royal London PFI project in December. If a decision is not made by the end of January the contract with private partner Skanska will lapse and the consortium will be entitled to walk away with costs of £100m paid, or to continue and be paid more. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Times 16 January 2006
    3     MP's worry over NHS cash cuts. John Penrose, Weston-super-Mare's Tory MP, has criticised a deficit-saving measure by North Somerset PCT. The trust is planning to delay payment of its payroll PAYE and NI contributions to the Inland Revenue until the new financial year. The PCT also plans to make nearly £2 million in cuts to non-emergency outpatient attendances, non-elective admissions, accident and emergency attendances and the GP prescribing regime. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 16 January 2006
        5 What will happen after hospital is closed? Supporters of under-threat Keynsham Hospital want a decision on its future delayed until it is made clear what health services will replace it. The hospital's future is currently being consulted on by Bristol South and West PCT. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 16 January 2006
    3     Savings plans hit social services hard. Chief executives are withholding national insurance contributions and delaying paying taxes, private partners and local authorities to control debts. One in five said they had - or would - delay payments to private sector partners. The same proportion will have done the same to local government partners by the end of March. In areas such as Wiltshire the NHS is accepting responsibility for less patients, particularly the elderly in need of long-term care, and leaving them to social services. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 19 January 2006
    3     Drastic measures fail to halt trusts' overspend. Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA has confirmed that its trusts have been forced to make "clinical capacity reductions in some areas" and "reductions in the numbers of staff employed". Despite drastic measures, including closures of wards and services, recruitment freezes and reductions in clinical capacity, West Wiltshire PCT, Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT, Cotswold and Vale PCT, South Wiltshire PCT, Weston Area Health trust and Royal United Hospital Bath trust will not break even. They forecast a combined deficit of almost £58m. The SHA has the NHS's largest predicted deficit of £119m. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 19 January 2006
    3     Nine in ten say NHS will not break even next year. Only 13% of NHS chief executives surveyed by HSJ expect the NHS to break even by April 2007, as Patricia Hewitt has demanded. 32% forecast their own trust would still be in debt. King's Fund chief economist John Appleby said: "'There has got to be much better costing of current policies. What impact is patient choice going to have on demand ? We have no idea. I do not think they have thought it through. The major policy this government has pursued since Labour came to power has been to improve access to hospitals by cutting waiting times, but we have never seen a figure on how much this has cost the NHS." The full 18 trusts named by Hewitt as being the worst performing are: Acute - Hammersmith Hospitals; Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals; Mid Yorkshire Hospitals; The Royal West Sussex; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare; Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals; University Hospital of North Staffordshire; Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals; George Eliot Hospital (Nuneaton). Primary Care Trusts - Hillingdon (London); Selby and York; Cheshire West; West Wiltshire; Kennet and North Wiltshire; Sheffield PCTs (four organisations). Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 26 January 2006
    3     West NHS faces £28m overspend. PCTs in the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA area have a combined deficit of £28m, with West Wiltshire, Kennet and North Wiltshire and Cotswold and Vale PCTs having the biggest deficits. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 30 January 2006
        5 No reprieve for cottage hospitals. Health chiefs in the West have insisted the massive shake-up of the NHS will continue as planned, despite Patricia Hewitt apparently calling for cottage hospitals to be saved. Carol Clarke, chief executive of Kennet & North Wiltshire and West Wiltshire PCTs, where two community hospitals have already closed and another five are under threat, said campaigners had taken Hewitt's message the wrong way: "In this area we have nine facilities and all but one are in old buildings that are not fit for purpose…I'm determined to keep services local but there won't be nine of them in a few years' time. It is unaffordable, inequitable and would be completely out of step." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 1 February 2006
        5 Outcry as admissions are halted at Fairford. No more patients are being admitted to Fairford Hospital in Gloucestershire. Campaigners had not expected the institution to close for another two months, and were continuing to campaign for a reprieve. Cotswold and Vale PCT is struggling with a £5m overspend. The hospital will close when the 13 patients currently being cared for are discharged. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 1 February 2006
      4   A nurse with breast cancer yesterday won the first round in her battle to persuade her primary care trust, Bristol North, to fund her treatment with the cancer-fighting drug herceptin. A high court judge, Mr Justice Silber, ordered the trust to pay for the treatment pending the outcome of Elisabeth Cooke's challenge to the trust's refusal to provide the drug free of charge. Clare Dyer Thursday February 2, 2006 The Guardian
  2       Blow for Frenchay as hospital get the OK. Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority have approved the business plan for a new superhospital at Southmeade in Bristol, further reducing the chances of a reprieve from closure for Frenchay hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 3 February 2006
      4   A breast cancer sufferer begins a High Court fight to force the NHS to allow her the life-saving treatment it refused on grounds of cost. Mark Townsend and Jo Revill Sunday February 5, 2006 The Observer [Swindon]
        5 Local care, for local people. While the government wants community hospitals to be a template for 21st century healthcare, 80 of them are still under threat. In Wiltshire, Carol Clarke, chief executive of Kennet & North Wiltshire and West Wiltshire PCTs (facing a £17m deficit), has said that of the nine cottage hospitals in the area, all but one are in old buildings "not fit for purpose". One of these hospitals, in Westbury, consists of buildings constructed in 1989 and 2001. Mike Hawkins, mayor of the town, said: "There has been no consultation, and we have not heard where, how, or when alternative services will be provided."  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph 6 February 2006
      4   A woman who today began a landmark legal battle to get the breast cancer drug Herceptin on the NHS said a decision to deny her the medication amounted to "a death sentence". Ann Marie Rogers is challenging Swindon primary care trust (PCT) in the first court case against a decision not to provide the drug, which is said to halve the chances of the aggressive Her2 form of breast cancer recurring. Today, Ian Wise, appearing for Ms Rogers, asked a judge to declare "arbitrary and unlawful" the PCT's policy of only providing Herceptin in "exceptional cases". Monday February 6, 2006
      4   A woman with an aggressive form of breast cancer who has been denied funds for the drug Herceptin has said she feels she has been handed a "death sentence" by her local NHS trust. Ann Marie Rogers, 54, is fighting a landmark high court battle to force health service managers to pay for her treatment. She has been refused the drug, which is said to halve the chances of the aggressive Her2 form of breast cancer returning, by Swindon primary care trust (PCT) in Wiltshire. Sam Jones Tuesday February 7, 2006 The Guardian
    3     Bed cut fear over £31m shortfall. The Gloucestershire health economy will have a £31m funding shortfall next year as debts are carried over. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust says it faces a £21m deficit and £10million will be lost by the county's PCTs. Health bosses have not ruled out cutting beds. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 9 February 2006
    3     Hospital in hole. Weston Area Health NHS Trust, which runs Weston General Hospital in Weston-super-Mare has revealed its deficit will be £6.6m. Some non-essential and non-clinical expenditure has been put on hold. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 13 February 2006
      4   Woman loses Herceptin court bid. Breast cancer patient Ann Marie Rogers has lost her legal challenge to be allowed the drug Herceptin on the NHS. The high court ruling supported Swindon PCT's position that they were acting in line with official advice, despite Patricia Hewitt saying that it would be wrong to deny the drug on grounds of cost.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 15 February 2006
      4   Cancer patient loses legal battle for Herceptin. · Judge turns down plea for early-stage treatment · Ruling enforces postcode lottery, says lawyer. Clare Dyer, legal editor Thursday February 16, 2006 The Guardian
        5 Community hospital battles continue. Despite the recent health white paper favouring community hospitals, campaigners are still having to fight closures due to the financial pressures on PCTs. Closure decisions are still going ahead Suffolk and Wiltshire, and there are concerns for the future of services in other areas, such as Shropshire and Gloucestershire. Now the Department of Health is to issue a "get tough" message to those PCTs who are unnecessarily planning to close community hospitals in the face of local opposition, telling them such closures should not be implemented because of "short-term budgetary pressures". The Department's letter says: "We are not leaving this shift of care to chance. We will reject local NHS plans that do not set out a strategy for providing more care closer to patients." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 17 February 2006
1         £1.2m in parking fees. The Great Western Hospital in Swindon has earned £1.2m in parking fees since it opened three years ago. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Public Finance 17 February 2006
1         Ministers back £1m hospital car parking. Swindon's Great Western Hospital charges patients and relatives up to £35 a day to park - more than some private car parks in central London. The trust has raised £1.2million from drivers in three years. But speaking to the Commons health select committee, health minister Jane Kennedy backed hospitals charging for parking, saying "I think these are competitive charges and therefore fair." She also defended bedside telephone and entertainment systems. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 20 February 2006
        5 No respite. A patient with Parkinson's at Keynsham Hospital has warned that vulnerable people across the West may suffer if the institution shuts and its badly needed respite care beds are lost. Bristol South and West Primary Care Trust has finished consulting on plans to close the hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 20 February 2006
    3     NHS under fire over bed cuts. North Bristol NHS Trust has been criticised for telling doctors to avoid sending all but the most seriously ill people to hospital because of a beds crisis. The trust, which runs Frenchay and Southmead hospitals, last week asked GPs to refer only clinically urgent patients as there was no capacity to take anyone else. In an email seen by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb, the director of operations at North Bristol NHS Trust said that emergency admissions were "significantly exceeding bed availability" the trust had "very limited critical care capacity". Steve Webb said the crisis showed the "folly" of plans to cut hundreds of hospital beds in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire when Frenchay and Southmead are replaced with a single 'super-hospital'. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 22 February 2006
    3     Debt crisis trusts to be bailed out by NHS neighbours. Avon, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire SHA has announced that an extra £210m being awarded to the NHS in the region will be kept in a pool of emergency funding for trusts in deficit, rather than being given to financially stable trusts in order to invest in new services as had previously been planned. But the debt-ridden organisations must agree wide-ranging cost cutting measures. For Wiltshire, this is likely to mean the loss of more community hospitals and beds. In Gloucestershire, some specialist centres will be centralised, meaning beds and staff will be cut. And in Bristol, planned expansion and improvement of services will be put on hold. Each PCT in the area was going to receive an extra 8.8% on top of its usual funding, but part of this, about 2.11%, will now go into the new pool. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 3 March 2006
        5 'Arrogant' bosses will shut hospital in five days. Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT and West Wiltshire PCT has announced the shock closure of Westbury Hospital with just a few days notice and no consultation. The PCT said that because of staff shortages, all the inpatient services would close on Sunday. Patients will be transferred to three other hospitals as part of the emergency measure, prompted because a year-long recruitment freeze has left fewer than half the staff needed to run the wards. Erica Watson of the hospital's League of Friends said: "We feel very strongly that there are staff available in West Wilts to cover the beds at Westbury. But the PCT has decided to close the beds by stealth to avoid the consultation that Westbury is requesting… This enforced rapid closure is just another example of how little regard the PCT has for its Westbury health community. The chief executive, Carol Clark, is still, despite all the evidence, stating that there are no health cuts in Westbury or West Wiltshire and her arrogant attitude continues to anger the local community." Despite the reason for the closure ostensibly being a staff shortage, Jenny Barker, the PCT's director of operations said: "This closure is driven by clinical need and not by our service reshaping plans." But she admitted that the PCT is "not yet in a position to reduce the number of patients in hospital, as we have not had time to build up those alternative services." Westbury's Tory MP Andrew Murrison said he has "no confidence" in the PCT due to its "mismanagement". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 3 March 2006
        5 Inpatients decision is referred. The closure of inpatient services at Fairford Hospital is to be referred to Patricia Hewitt. The 15-bed unit closed on Wednesday as part of cost-cutting measures by the Cotswold and Vale primary care trust. Campaigners say there was insufficient consultation and now Stroud District Council has referred the decision to the Health Secretary. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 6 March 2006
        5 Hospital protesters step up campaign. Protesters against the closure of Keynsham Hospital handed in a 700-signature petition to the local authority's overview and scrutiny committee asking for more time for replacement services to be installed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 7 March 2006
        5 Mena fights on as NHS battle heats up. Westbury Hospital in Wiltshire remains open for just one dying patient after doctors would not allow the PCT to move her. Patients were given just days' notice that the hospital would be closed, and twelve patients were moved on Sunday. Campaigners say the closure, justified on the grounds of a staff shortage after the PCT instituted a recruitment freeze, is illegal because there was no consultation. But the final closure of the facility was postponed by the condition of Mena Rising, whose stated wish is to die in the hospital. West Wiltshire PCT chief executive Carol Clarke has admitted she wants just one community hospital in Wiltshire, which currently has five. This is likely to be Trowbridge, meaning the future of Warminster and Melksham are in serious doubt. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 7 March 2006
        5 Nurses agreed to work in last-ditch bid to save hospital. West Wiltshire PCT's claim that it had to close Westbury hospital because of a staff shortage following a recruitment freeze was left in tatters after campaigners found 19 nurses willing to work at the hospital, one of them for free. The hospital's League of Friends even offered to pay the staff's wages. But the PCT pushed ahead regardless. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 7 March 2006
        5 Glimmer of hope for local wards. Gloucestershire's overview and scrutiny committee has used its power to refer the proposed closure of beds at two community hospitals to Patricia Hewitt. Cotswold and Vale PCT's decision to close wards at Tetbury and Fairford will now be reviewed. Fairford Hopital's 15 in-patient beds were closed last week. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 7 March 2006
      4   The second woman to take her fight for the breast cancer drug Herceptin to the high court has been told she must wait for the outcome of Ann Marie Rogers' appeal at the end of the month. Solicitors for Elisabeth Cooke, 59, a mother of two from Bristol, said that much was resting on the appeal. Both women want access to Herceptin for early stage breast cancer. At the moment it is only licensed for advanced disease. Sarah Boseley Tuesday March 7, 2006 The Guardian
      4   Breast cancer victims who would currently be refused the 'miracle' drug Herceptin by the NHS have been treated by their private medical insurers instead. Bupa says that since last year it has provided Herceptin to about 100 women who have been diagnosed in the early stages of the deadly HER-2 positive form of breast cancer, while Standard Life has paid for the drug in 30 early stage cases. Norwich Union has also provided funding for Herceptin in early stage cases since June last year. Herceptin recently hit the headlines as two women with early stage breast cancer went to the High Court in a bid to get treatment with the drug through their health trusts. A year-long course of Herceptin costs more than £20,000, and some cash-strapped trusts have refused the drug in early stage cases, even though Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has ordered them to provide it if doctors think it will help. Sunday March 12, 2006 The Observer
    3     Concern over £10m cut for health trusts. Three PCTs in the Avon area will miss out on £10.6m for patient care after last-minute budget cuts by the Department of Health. Early abolition of the purchaser parity adjustment grant will mean North Somerset PCT will have £5.6m less next year than expected, South Gloucestershire PCT will lose out on £3.8 million, and Bristol North PCT will have £1.2m less. A DoH spokesman said: "We are moving money around the system to ensure every part of the country gets its fair share of NHS funding before the introduction of Payment by Results." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 16 March 2006
        5 Community Hospitals at risk in Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA according to Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Bradford-on-Avon Hospital
Clevedon Hospital (listed under Dorset and Somerset  SHA)
Westbury Hospital
Melksham Community Hospital
Trowbridge Community Hospital
Devizes Community Hospital
Warminster Hospital
Malmesbury Community Hospital
Tetbury Hospital
Cossham Hospital
Moreton-In-Marsh Hospital
Moore Cottage Hospital, Bourton-on-the-Water
Fairford Hospital
Thornbury Hospital
      4   Hospital debate is blasted as a sham. Wiltshire's two merged PCTs, which have shut three hospitals in the past 12 months, have sparked yet more dismay with the relaunch of a consultation exercise that could lead to further closures. Campaigners say trust chiefs have made up their minds to slash the number of cottage hospitals from nine to just three, closing Devizes, Melksham and Warminster hospitals. Meanwhile campaigners who fought to save Westbury Hospital have launched a legal challenge to the closure. They said the PCT acted illegally when it closed the hospital without the statutory consultation process. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 18 March 2006
    3     Fears spread over NHS redundancies. Unison has warned that jobs could be cut across the West due to the NHS financial crisis. The union says that its relations with employers will be greatly strained if hospitals start laying people off while paying to send patients to be treated by the private sector. Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "we are meant to believe cuts in the number of doctors and nurses will not harm patient care…Recent job losses are the result of this Government's permanent revolution in the NHS, damaging both staff morale and patient confidence." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 18 March 2006
        5 Job losses increase as NHS trusts cut spending. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust board has decided to axe 325 posts, which may include doctors and nurses, in an effort to cut spending by £21.3m in the new financial year. Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. The cuts come in addition to 80 vacant posts that have not been filled since last summer. The trust is one of those that was sent a turnaround team by Patricia Hewitt. In Gloucestershire the closure of the 86-bed Delancey community hospital at Leckhampton has been announced by deficit hit West Gloucestershire PCT, threatening more jobs. Lord Warner, the health minister, said that "rushed decisions" to close community hospitals could be a false economy. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Telegraph 29 March 2006
    3   5 It's Gloomstershire No Hope Service. A host of services are being closed and jobs lost in Gloucestershire in an attempt to claw back debts of at least £40m. 200 jobs are to be cut from the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the first foundation hospital to announce such losses. The trust has actually made a surplus this year but says that changes to the way hospitals are funded by the government means it will receive £17million less next year to treat the same number of patients. Paul Lilley, chief executive, said: "What we are confident about is that patients won't see any decline in the quality of service, but access maybe more difficult". Delancey Hospital in Cheltenham, an 86-bed facility which specialises in rehabilitation of the elderly, is being closed by West Gloucestershire PCT. 60 adult mental health beds, or 25%, are being axed. The nurse-led overnight unit for children at Cheltenham General Hospital has been shut before it had even opened. Other specialist units likely to be closed at either Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary or Cheltenham General include the inpatient maternity ward, urology, vascular, oral and maxillofacial and gynaecology. This means patients for all these departments face having to travel further to the one remaining centre. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 29 March 2006
        5 Hundreds march over West hospital closure. Hundreds of hospital campaigners have marched through Bradford on Avon to demonstrate at the closure of the town's hospital, and to call for the continued use of the hospital site for health care in the future. The hospital was closed last year by the debt-ridden West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, which has since also closed Westbury Hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 29 March 2006
        5 Patients who face trips of torment. Health chiefs were yesterday presented with a damning dossier, which lays bare the suffering endured by hundreds of cancer patients in remote corners of the West. 300 heartbreaking tales were presented to health chiefs to show them the human cost of decisions to centralise services in centres of excellence. So patients have to make 200-mile round trips for cancer care in Cheltenham. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 29 March 2006
        5 An 87-year-old woman with breast cancer is being forced to travel more than 500 miles a week for treatment because of a lack of local services, it emerged yesterday. Muriel Buckby has to make three 175-mile round trips every week from her home in mid Wales to a radiotherapy unit in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Each journey takes her more than four hours by car, which her family fears is taking its toll on her fragile health. Steven Morris Tuesday April 4, 2006 The Guardian [not strictly withdrawal of local facilities, but an example of the problems of lack of local facilities]
          Nine out of ten want more say in running health services. Nearly nine out of 10 people in the South West think they should be given more say in how their local health services are run, according to a survey. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Bristol Evening Post 3 April 2006
    3     Funding blow hits new ward. Patients with mental illnesses will not be able to receive treatment at a £6m unit in Weston-super-Mare because of a funding shortage to staff a new ward. Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership is building a new treatment centre in the grounds of Weston General Hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Bristol Evening Post 3 April 2006
    3     Council fury over £3m health cut. Several day-care centres and care homes in Wiltshire may face financial crisis after the county's PCT withdrew £3m in funding. Wiltshire's county council, which runs four day centres and three respite care homes partly funded by the PCT, is outraged. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 4 April 2006 [Care in the Community]
    3     Hospital trust latest to axe jobs. The Royal United Hospital NHS Trust in Bath has announced that up to 300 jobs may be lost as it attempts to balance its books. The 650-bed hospital, which employs 3,500 staff, must make £13.2m savings. As well as the job losses, the trust will stop using specialist agency staff from April, and stop using agency employees altogether from May. Additional beds, which were opened during the winter, will be closed, and patients discharged sooner. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 5 April 2006
    3     The mood of crisis in the NHS deepened yesterday with the announcement of 720 further job losses at a hospital trust in the Midlands and the resignation of a trust chief executive in the north-west, with a £475,000 payoff. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust said it would have to shed 720 jobs over the next 12 months to balance the books after accumulating deficits worth £31.5m over several years. The staff affected will include nurses, doctors and administrative workers at hospitals in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster, where Labour lost a safe parliamentary seat in 2001 due to local protest at the downgrading of NHS facilities. The job losses bring the total announced by trusts in England over the past five weeks to more than 6,000. The toll this week included 160 jobs at Medway trust in Kent, 400 at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare trust and up to 300 at Royal United hospitals in Bath. Meanwhile Pennine Acute, the largest NHS trust in the north-west of England, with hospitals in Bury, north Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale, announced the early retirement of its chief executive, Chris Appleby, who was under pressure to go after a vote of no confidence from the trust's doctors last summer. An independent inquiry into the trust by Sir George Alberti, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, found a "lethal mixture" of suspect leadership styles and poor relations between doctors and managers. Other NHS developments included a report from the Audit Commission warning of serious concerns about the financial position of George Eliot hospital trust in Nuneaton. It had "deteriorated to such an extent that it cannot be managed simply through local measures", said the auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers. And in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, NHS managers said a new multimillion-pound mental health ward may never be opened because there was not the money to run it. John Carvel and Les Reid Friday April 7, 2006 The Guardian
  2 3     £6m ward closed before it opens. A new £6 million PFI hospital ward at Weston General Hospital, Weston-super-Mare, is to be mothballed because the NHS cannot afford the staff to run it. The ward, intended for vulnerable old people with mental health problems, is part of a £78m PFI intended to revamp mental health facilities across the Avon area. Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and North Somerset PCT will pay the PFI firm £200,000 a year for 30 years, a total of £6 million, for the building and maintenance of the ten bed facility. The trusts had originally budgeted to build one 25-bed ward, a plan that was scrapped in favour of two wards, one with ten beds and one with 15. But the extra cost of staffing two separate wards had not been taken into account, leaving a shortfall of £560,000. The two trusts found their PFI contract did not allow them to pull out of the ongoing building, so they were left with no choice but to build both wards and leave one empty. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Times 6 April 2006
    3     Secret plan to ration patient care. Patients are being denied appointments with consultants in a systematic attempt to ration care and save the NHS money. The leaked document - 'Pan London Demand Management Arrangements 06-07' produced by the London Transition Team, led by John Bacon, a senior NHS manager - shows that while ministers promise patients choice, a series of barriers are being erected limiting GPs' rights to refer people to consultants. Health trusts across London have drawn up plans to establish panels that will monitor how many patients are referred to hospital by GPs. Trusts have been told that they must cut GP referral rates to those of the lowest 10%, saving £25m a year. Consultant-to-consultant referrals are also being limited, in many cases denying patients a second opinion. A& E departments are being told to "redirect" 40-70% of patients back to GPs or walk-in centres. Hospitals that treat people who ought to have been sent to their GPs will not be paid. The bureaucracy needed to screen all the referrals will itself cost £1.6m. The Times says: "The language of the document makes no pretence that this will improve care, and emphasises cost savings throughout. 'It is imperative that London balances its books overall,' the first paragraph says." The BMA says similar schemes are running in Kent, Oxfordshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Surrey, Sussex, Cornwall, Shropshire, Suffolk, Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as London. Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of the BMA consultants committee, said: "It's clear that clinicians don't know how these referral management systems aid improvements in clinical care. To them they are purely cost-saving. The way they work is not transparent or clear. If clinicians don't know, patients cannot know either. That certainly flies in the face of the Government's Patient Choice agenda." Myfanwy Davies and Glyn Elwyn, of the Centre for Health Services Research at Cardiff, said the centres had "appeared overnight in an evidence-free zone". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Times 7 April 2006
      4   Breast cancer patient Ann Marie Rogers won her legal battle for NHS treatment with the drug Herceptin in the court of appeal yesterday, but primary care trusts will still be free to ration it for other women.  Clare Dyer and Sarah Hall Thursday April 13, 2006 The Guardian [Swindon]
        5 Community hospitals face closure. Kennet and North Wiltshire and West Wiltshire PCTs have drawn up three options for restructured health services which include a swathe of hospital and health clinic closures. Between five and seven community hospitals will close and be replaced by up to three 'new generation community hospitals' according to a three-month consultation paper released on Friday last week. One community hospital on the patch - Bradford and Avon - has already been shut and two health clinics could be axed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 13 April 2006
        5 Axe falls on more West hospitals. There is outrage as the axe is set to fall on three community hospitals in Wiltshire as part of a new wave of cuts. Three options have been announced by the Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT and West Wiltshire PCT - and they all involve closing hospitals in Trowbridge, Warminster and Devizes, including the latter's maternity unit. The future of Melksham Hospital and Savernake in Marlborough are also threatened. Charterhouse Hospital for the elderly and patients with dementia will close this year. The trust, which is trying to arrest an £18m deficit, proposes to set up a series of "primary care centres" at Devizes, Trowbridge and either Warminster or Westbury, with Chippenham Hospital becoming a "new generation community hospital". Conservativbe MP Andrew Murrison said: "The promise of souped-up GP mega-surgeries offering even less choice than at present, a few more district nurses that can be readily cut when the axe falls again, and an impossibly remote new hospital in Chippenham seems a poor substitute for the community hospitals that my constituents will be losing." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 13 April 2006
    3     PCTs cancel £3m in social care funding. Two deficit-ridden primary care trusts in Wiltshire have withdrawn up to £3m of social care funding from the local authority with just 14 hours' notice. The council claims the move risks destabilising its finances and calls into further doubt the viability of partnership working between health and social care. Funding for 50 older people in residential care and nursing homes was withdrawn on April 1. Funds for respite care and day services for disabled adults have also been cut, as the two PCTs attempt to address their estimated combined deficits of £18m. Wiltshire council leader Jane Scott, who has complained to health minister Liam Burn, said: "For them to renege on them is bad enough, but with such short notice is outrageous." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Public Finance 14 April 2006
          A woman whose son died in hospital has been told a potentially life-saving brain procedure was not carried out - because it was a weekend.  Lee Nicholls, 16, was taken to hospital after collapsing with a brain haemorrhage on Easter Sunday last year.  Doctors told his mother he needed an angiogram - an X-ray of blood vessels in the brain - to decide the best method of treatment, but said the procedure was not available at weekends.  Daily Mail 12 April 2006 [North Bristol NHS Trust]
          Up to a third of dentists won't sign NHS contract. Nearly a third of dentists in some parts of England have refused to sign new NHS contracts - contradicting a recent statement by Tony Blair that "about 90 to 95%" of dentists had signed up. A leaked government document, showing exactly how many dentists in each area have taken up the contracts, reveals that in the south west, 29% of dentists have refused to sign up; in the Thames Valley, 15%; in Hampshire, 18%; in Yorkshire, 23%; and in the West Midlands, 24%. In south-west London, the figure is 12%; in Manchester, 11%; in Kent, 14%; and in Dorset, 15%. In Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, 23% have not signed up. Of the 9,419 contracts offered in England, 1,096 have been rejected, including some covering more than one dentist - a national average of 12% more than Mr Blair's claim.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Telegraph 16 April 2006
    3   5 You should all quit, civic chiefs tell under-pressure health bosses. The entire board of one of the West's most debt-ridden health trusts should resign en masse after proposing even more hospital closures. That was the demand from councillors of all parties in West Wiltshire, who voted by 36 to 1 to demand the mass resignation of the board of West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, including chief executive Carol Clarke. The leader of the council's scrutiny committee, Cllr Tony Phillips, said: "Local people are dismayed by the PCT's actions and they are extremely worried about what will happen to their community health facilities… It has reached the stage where people do not feel that their voices are being heard, as the PCT appears to have made its decisions already." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 20 April 2006
          Audit shows ISTC failures. More damning evidence of poor quality patient care in independent sector treatment centres has emerged in the face of Government denials that such evidence exists. An audit comparing NHS primary joint replacements at North Bristol NHS Trust and the private Cheltenham Nuffield Hospital in 2004-05 showed re-operation rates were ten times higher at the latter. Mr Gordon Bannister, an NHS consultant at Avon Orthopaedic Centre (AOC), compared 1,754 joint replacement operations at the AOC with 137 in the Cheltenham Nuffield. The Nuffield's re-operation rate for knee replacements was ten per cent, compared with the NHS' one per cent. For hips it was 12 per cent, with 0.7 per cent in the NHS. German surgeon Mr Matthias Honl, who treated NHS patients in Cheltenham, said he had to steal instruments from another hospital, as those at the Nuffield were inappropriate. Meanwhile Prof Angus Wallace, of Nottingham's Queens Medical Centre says during two weeks in March he saw 15 orthopaedic patients from Barlborough ISTC, run by Partnership Health Group, with problems due to poor surgery and inappropriate discharge. 'One resulted in a near death from renal failure,' he wrote to Health Minister Jane Kennedy. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Hospital Doctor 21 April 2006
    3   5 Children with cancer and leukaemia are among the frontline victims of sweeping cuts being forced through to contain the health service's ballooning financial deficits, nurses' leaders warned last night. The elderly and those with mental health problems are also suffering, with the closure of beds in community hospitals and the reduction in numbers of specialist nurses needed to treat them. Nurses' leaders yesterday published a dossier of examples to back their claims and said their research disproved ministers' assertions that trusts are seeking to balance their books without any detriment to patient care. The warning came as Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, came under widespread attack for claiming yesterday that the NHS had just enjoyed its "best year ever". In a speech to Unison's health conference in Gateshead today, Ms Hewitt is expected to offer a stark message that the NHS must "modernise or die". As part of a coordinated fightback she will say that, after the additional resources put into the service by Labour over the past few years, the NHS was now "back in business". Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, roundly denounced Ms Hewitt, saying that if this was the best year for the NHS she dreaded to think what a worse one could be like. Drawing from RCN research, she gave examples of how patient care was being affected in second tier services for the vulnerable. Among the examples were:
  • Children with cancer and leukaemia in Taunton, Somerset, are no longer being treated by a community nurse because the local primary care trust withdrew funding it had promised to the cancer charity CLIC. The children now have to make long journeys for treatment, wrecking their chances of continuing a normal life in their own community.
  • Avon and Wiltshire mental health trust has cut the number of beds by more than 65 to less than 40. The frail and vulnerable have to go further afield for treatment.
  • In the Cotswolds, 80 community beds have been closed within the last three months to reduce deficits. A similar number have been lost in Felixstowe.
  • Ward closures in Skegness has led to patients having to travel 40 miles to Lincoln.
  • Minor injuries units are being closed and opening hours reduced.

Dr Malone said: "NHS deficits are hitting patient services; to claim otherwise is simply wrong. These are real services for real people with real illnesses, and we have got to stop treating them as statistics on a balance sheet." Yesterday it emerged that Downing Street received a report from his delivery unit last week pointing out that prospects for reaching 11 of the government's 28 health targets by 2008 were poor. The Department of Health declined to name the 11 targets that received "red traffic lights", but it was understood they included public health objectives such as improved sexual health and reduced children's obesity. John Carvel and Tania Branigan Monday April 24, 2006 The Guardian
        5 Keynsham Hospital is set to close. Keynsham Hospital could close under new plans which would see patients using a new community hospital in Bristol. United Bristol Healthcare Trust has been consulting on proposals to move beds to Bristol General ahead of a new South Bristol Community Hospital planned for 2008. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 25 April 2006
    3     Hospital job cuts. Jobs and beds at the Weston General Hospital are being axed as the trust which runs it tries to find £11 million of cuts. Up to 60 jobs and 56 beds are set to go from the Weston Area Health NHS Trust. The trust will be closing Weston General's 16-bed short stay unit, reducing the six-bed bays on the surgical floor to four-bed bays - losing another 32 beds - and cutting a further eight beds in the rehabilitation unit. The cuts will be made by the middle of July. Unison south west regional officer Liz French said: "This is one of the most prudent trusts in the South West. These cuts aren't a result of mismanagement, but because of the way that Government is now funding trusts." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 26 April 2006
          Voters urged to send a message to the NHS. Bristol Keep Our NHS Public is calling on voters to use the local elections on Thursday to send a message to councils to defend the health service against cuts. The call has been prompted by widespread service reductions and job losses as the Government introduces health service reforms. Keep Our NHS Public said councils should be using their scrutiny powers over health services, but instead cuts and closures are often met with silence. The overview and scrutiny committees of local authorities can examine changes - such as services being moved, treatments withdrawn or wards closed - and can refer cases to the Secretary of State if the community has not been properly consulted or the committee considers the proposals will be bad for the local health service. South Gloucestershire council recently sought a judicial review over plans to close Frenchay Hospital but the city council's scrutiny committee disagreed with the initiative. Gwyneth Powell Davies of Bristol Keep Our NHS Public said: "Councillors have a responsibility to ensure people's health services are protected. They need to ask deeper questions about local reorganisation of the health service and the way it is being slimmed down to make a space for the private sector. Now is the time for voters to hold councillors to account." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 3 May 2006
        5 Let us have the truth on our hospitals. Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison challenged Tony Blair at prime minister's questions to defend the decision to close hospitals in West Wiltshire to deal with deficits in the NHS. He said: "The community health white paper published in January this year quite correctly said 'community facilities should not be lost in response to short term budgetary pressures'. Yet all four community hospitals in my constituency, plus a 26-bedded elderly mentally infirm unit and our midwife-led midwifery unit are all scheduled for the axe to sort out deficits." Blair said trusts had to live within their means. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 4 May 2006
    3     Half of all NHS hospitals can't afford to replace midwives. More than one in three hospitals are cutting budgets for maternity care as the NHS financial crisis deepens. The cuts mean that almost half of all health trusts are not replacing midwives who leave the service, according to research by the Royal College of Midwives. One in four heads of midwifery have been forced to reduce home visits and 10% are cutting back on home births, despite NHS guidance that women should be allowed to opt for such a procedure. A quarter of the 92 heads of midwifery at hospitals in England surveyed by the RCM said that staffing numbers had been cut. The study also found that 10% of hospitals have made midwifery staff redundant despite the RCM's belief that the NHS is already short of 10,000 midwives. Some of those questioned said that, despite Government guidance that the "gold standard" of care should mean that women in labour get one-to-one treatment, midwives are now expected to deal with three or four births simultaneously. More than a quarter of those questioned said that junior midwives were being pushed into senior posts, while midwifery assistants - less qualified than midwives - are carrying out tasks normally given to junior midwives. 7% of trusts are closing a birth centre on either a temporary or permanent basis while 8% said that maternity wards had been closed. The results of the survey come ahead of this week's RCM conference where Patricia Hewitt is expected to face further grassroots anger over cuts. Meanwhile Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust has announced that 99 posts will be cut. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Telegraph 7 May 2006
        5 NHS Staff fear more savage job cuts in the West. Hundreds more job cuts are expected to be announced in the West, as union leaders and health workers brace themselves for a second round of cuts in Gloucestershire. It is thought up to 12 community hospitals and 300 jobs are under direct threat. The futures of Winchcombe, Dilke Memorial, Tetbury and Bourton-on-the-Water are all thought to be at risk. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 10 May 2006
    3   5 Big cuts to county's NHS services. Massive cuts to health services across Gloucestershire will see 500 job losses, community hospitals closed and maternity services moved to Gloucester. The county's three PCTs and its NHS provider trusts face a deficit of £38m. Under the plans, all maternity inpatient services will be provided from Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Stroud's Maternity Hospital will close this year. 240 hospital beds will be lost across the county, including some already closed at Fairford and Tetbury and others at Delancey Hospital. Further bed reductions are proposed at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital. In the Forest of Dean the Dilke Memorial Hospital will close and in the longer term Lydney and District Hospital will be replaced. Winchcombe Hospital is also ear-marked for closure as are Berkeley Hospital and the Sandpits clinic. Unions have reacted angrily to the announcement warning of possible strikes. Mervyn Dawe, branch secretary of Unison's Severn health branch, said the "effect on services to patients and service users, along with the local staff, is intolerable". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 11 May 2006
        5 Cancer centre future doubts. The future of a specialist cancer centre at Frenchay Hospital has been thrown into doubt just five years after it opened. Yesterday health chiefs issued a statement saying there were "no present plans" to close the unit but all services were under review. More than £2 million was raised towards the cancer centre project, which included the funding of six Macmillan nurses and two consultants for three years. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 12 May 2006
        5 Nurses are told to keep their mouths shut over health cuts. Nurses have been told they could face disciplinary action if they join their patients in protesting about savage cuts to the NHS in the West County. Representatives from Unison say some managers at Wiltshire hospitals have told staff they must not display stickers supporting the campaign to save their hospitals if they are parking in the hospital car park. As many as eight hospitals could be closed in the county, where debt-ridden health chiefs have to save £20m and repay another £28m in loans. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 17 May 2006
        5 5,000 Names in one week. 5,000 people have signed a petition to save the Macmillan Cancer Centre at Frenchay Hospital. North Bristol NHS Trust has not guaranteed the future of the £1.1m unit while stating that there are no "present plans" to close it. The PCT has said the building housing the unit is part of plans to build a community hospital on the Frenchay site. The unit, which was built with the help of public donations, has attracted many defenders from the area including Kingswood Labour MP Roger Berry and Northavon Lib Dem MP Steve Webb. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 18 May 2006
        5 More than a quarter of England's popular and successful midwife-led birth centres are being threatened with closure, in spite of government promises to give women more choice over how and where they have their babies. More than 15 birth centres are under threat as NHS trusts struggle to deal with financial deficits, the Guardian has learned. Just eight days ago, as health secretary Patricia Hewitt spoke to the midwives' annual conference about the need to give more women one-to-one care, the third largest birth centre in the country, in Stroud, was told it must shut because of financial pressure, though there is no question of its success and the admiration in which it is held locally. Sarah Boseley, health editor Saturday May 20, 2006 The Guardian
          NHS a scapegoat for debt say Lib Dems. Liberal Democrats on Wiltshire Council have accused its Tory chiefs of blaming the NHS for their own mismanagement. Lib Dem opposition leaders have accused the council of covering up a £10m black hole of their own making and blaming NHS deficits for their errors. The claims come as NHS managers fume over being blamed for shock budget cuts to that were announced to cover the shortfall, cuts that will hit care for the elderly and unwell, and increase the burden on the NHS. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 25 May 2006
    3     Hospital overtime ban fury. Porters at Frenchay and Southmead hospitals are being stopped from working overtime as cheaper agency staff are brought in by health bosses to save money. Trust bosses admit imposing a ban on overtime for most staff, including nurses. Unions say they will refuse to help train the stand-in staff. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 30 May 2006
    3     We deserve better! Plans in Gloucestershire to close the highly praised Stroud maternity unit have caused protests from angry parents, many with children who were born there. The protest is part of a rising tide of dissatisfaction over the cuts Gloucestershire PCTs are making to recover a combined £40m in debt. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 31 May 2006
  2       "We're getting second best deal." Plans to build a £12m community hospital in Yale have been scrapped in favour of redeveloping an already cramped site next to a local shopping centre. The new building could reach six stories to make the most of scarce space. Tory Councillor Sandra Grant commented that, in terms of healthcare, South Gloucestershire was again "getting second best." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 5 June 2006
    3     Hard up bosses find £2m for fees. Two merged PCTs in Wiltshire, led by chief executive Carol Clarke, have spent around the same in the past four years on management consultants - £2,134,263 - as they plan to save by closing hospitals, according to figures released by a local MP. The trust, made up of West Wiltshire and Kennet & North Wiltshire PCTs, was earlier this year forced to take on a 'turnaround team' of more consultants by the government to help it break even. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 8 June 2006
    3     West trusts to bail out stricken neighbours to tackle £40m debt crisis. Prosperous NHS trusts in the west will have to plough cash into their debt-ridden neighbours under a u-turn prompted by popular campaigns against further cuts. While some PCTs have racked up huge deficits, the worst being Kennet and North Wiltshire (12.6m) and West Wiltshire (£9.7m), the area's two SHAs underspent by almost £17m. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Western Daily Press 8 June 2006
    3     "Our £7m deficit means fifty beds will be axed at hospital." Weston Area NHS Trust plans to cut more than fifty beds from Weston General Hospital in response to being £7m in debt. Chief executive of the trust, Mark Gritten said the shortfall was due to North Somerset PCT's £4.2m hole in its budget, out of which the care is funded. The bed losses will be compensated for with more care in the community. Gritten aims to "reduce the number of patients coming into the hospital by three to five a day." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Bristol Evening Post 8 June 2006
          Campaign to keep NHS public. A solicitor who says the future of the NHS is under threat wants others to help with his fight. Kelvin Fraser, of Weston, is forming a local branch of national pressure group Keep Our NHS Public. The 46-year-old, who is a member of the Liberal Democrats, says the NHS is under threat from privatisation: "The situation within the health service in North Somerset is giving increasing cause for concern, and the same pattern is being repeated all across the country. With our local PCT and hospital trust debts at current levels and the Government insisting on further financial restraint, front line services are bound to suffer. While spending on the NHS in England has doubled since 1997, much of the money has been wasted on market-driven reforms, paving the way for more and more privatisation of health care provision. The further we move away from the traditional model of the NHS the more problems arise. It is no exaggeration to say that the very future of the NHS, as most people know and value it, is now under threat. I'm hoping that in North Somerset we can put together a broad coalition of people from all walks of life and political persuasions. We need to organise a coherent and effective campaign if we are to have any prospect of retaining our local health services at the level which people both expect and deserve." Mr Fraser can be contacted by calling 01934