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  • A MAN who blames inadequate facilities at a former maternity hospital near Rugby for his grave disabilities faces an anxious wait for the outcome of his compensation fight. Alexis Macey, now aged 23, was delivered prematurely at the St Mary's Maternity Hospital in Harborough Magna, near Rugby, on March 5, 1981.  Rugby Advertiser 06 May 2004
  • A RUGBY-BORN man facing a lifetime of disability is in line for millions of pounds in compensation after the Warwickshire Health Authority was found guilty of medical negligence. Alexis Macey, 23, was delivered prematurely at St Mary's Maternity Hospital in Harborough Magna, on March 5, 1981. Mr. Macey was yesterday (Wednesday) guaranteed full compensation after Mr Justice David Clarke, ruled a 'breach of duty' on the part of medical staff at St Mary's had caused his injuries.  Rugby Advertiser 27 May 2004
  • AN ANGRY mother has claimed that penny-pinching education officers are preventing her ill son receiving appropriate teaching. Eve Love's son, John, who celebrates his 12th birthday today (Thursday), suffers from a form of epilepsy which could kill him at any moment. Before moving to Stretton-on Fosse from Wiltshire in August, she contacted Warwickshire Local Education Authority to ask them to keep John back a year and provide him with the special teaching provisions he needs. However, the LEA informed her on Saturday that John would be placed in a higher year group – three days before the start of term.  Rugby Advertiser 08 September 2005
  • Anger as hospitals increase parking charges. Parking charges have been increased by more than 30% at Warwick and Stratford Hospitals. The charge for a week-long parking pass will more than double from £7 to £15. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Coventry Evening Telegraph 13 February 2006
  • Parent group hits at baby scan price hike. Cash-strapped George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton has increased the charge for print outs of baby scans from £3.50 for two images to £5 for just one picture. The hike is part of measures being pushed through in response to the hospital's financial position. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Coventry Evening Telegraph March 2006
  • 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
  • Hospital sends admin to India. Medical secretarial work at Nuneaton's cash-strapped George Eliot Hospital is being sent to India's cheaper labour market to be processed. Worried secretarial staff in Nuneaton fear their jobs are now on the line. One said: "We were called in by our manager to be told that, with effect from May 1 all typing work in ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynaecology will be sent to India, initially for a three-month trial. This is aimed at saving money, but we know that it will be extended beyond a trial and lead to redundancies." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Coventry Evening Telegraph 24 April 2006
  • Jobs to go in bid for massive budget savings. Coventry Teaching PCT has spelled out how it aims to save a massive £29 million over the next year - and job losses are on the cards. The PCT says it is under "significant pressures" to slash its patient care budget of £381million by 7.5%. It says it has to slash its budget to address several issues, including payment by results, which will cost it an extra £9million this year. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Coventry Evening Telegraph 4 May 2006
  • Maternity unit "will close within weeks". The fate of Nuneaton's maternity unit has been sealed by the removal of its three top mid-wife posts according to staff at the unit. A radical shake-up of services in Nuneaton, that includes downsizing its A& E department, had left a question mark over the future of the unit at the town's beleaguered George Eliot Hospital. Plans to close Nuneaton's specialist baby unit, which treats premature babies, have already been announced, with services to be moved to Coventry; but staff now feel the maternity unit is sure to follow suit. The hospital trust has denied the move. Opponents and campaigners in Nuneaton plan a petition and have urged residents to attend a public meeting at Nuneaton Town all on July 13th. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Coventry Evening Telegraph 4 July 2006
  • Hospital hugged in protest march. Protestors fighting cuts at a Warwickshire hospital took part in a march on Sunday. They walked through Nuneaton to George Eliot Hospital and then linked arms around the building in a symbolic show of support. Residents are angry about plans which could see the special care baby unit and children's ward close. There are plans to alter maternity and out-of-hours emergency surgery services with patients using other hospitals. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 14 August 2006
  • Subject: Warwickshire Hospital Cuts - Documents From: "Keith Kondakor" <keithk@clara.co.uk> To: <sheila@healthdemocracy.org.uk>[old email address] Date: Fri, September 8, 2006 10:25 am
    I have obtained some useful documents using the Freedom of Information Act. Key is the technical report on which the Acute Services Review is based. It states that they can save £10.5m without spending on alternative care. It has a long list of conditions that will be subject to admittance avoidance - many deadly. Please read and pass on.
    Keith
  • NHS trust could cut up to 90 jobs. Up to 90 jobs could be going at a West Midlands NHS Trust. Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust said the redundancies would be across a range of areas and included clinical posts as well as corporate staff. The trust has a predicted end of year overspend of £11m. A spokesman said it was looking at financial savings as a means of preventing the overspend. The trust has said it will use voluntary redundancies or try to redeploy staff but compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 11 October 2006
  • E.coli find stirs water fears. THE potentially harmful bacteria E.coli was found in treated water leaving Draycote reservoir - it has been revealed. Routine testing uncovered the bacteria in December last year, but it has only just been made public by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). The cause of the bacteria has never been identified and Severn Trent Water says it was not required to make the finding public at the time. There was no evidence the E.coli was the strain which can cause diarrhoea, sickness and in some cases be fatal, but water standard regulations say it should never appear in drinking water and when it does it means it has been contaminated in some way, usually by faeces. Severn Trent says it conducted a thorough investigation to check the water treatment works was working correctly. No problems were identified and further samples were retested but were clear. The DWI, which ensures drinking water standards are maintained, has raised concerns the sampling facilities at Draycote, which supplies drinking water to 85,000 homes, were not up to scratch and able to meet the criteria of UK and European regulations. It was the second micro-biological failure at one of Severn Trent's water works in the area during 2006. In September last year Coliform Bacteria was found in one sample taken from a underground storage reservoir in Barby which supplies drinking water to 70,000 homes in the north and central parts of the borough. Although on its own it is harmless, its presence in water can indicate other harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, is present within it. It is believed the failure may have occurred because at the time Severn Trent had reduced the amount of chlorine used to disinfect the water to reduce the build up of trihalomethanes which can damage health. A spokeswoman for the water company said a £1million upgrade of the water treatment process at Draycote was planned along with further improvements to the disinfection process at the service reservoir in Barby. Rugby Observer 12 July 2007

Anti Acute Services Review - Coventry and Warwickshire

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Sheila Porter-Williams
Campaign for Health Service Democracy
Green Haven, Halfway Lane
Dunchurch
Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 6RD
sheilaCHSD@porter-williams.freeserve.co.uk