Monday 9 July 2012

Is it me, or do the people that we elect and trust to do what's best for us seem to be struggling? Whether it's the 'credit crunch', immigration controls, or law and order we can all, I'm sure, spot activities that just don't make sense. It seems to me that the people in power, upon accession to their office, throw away any modicum of common sense they ever possessed. And what a blessing the 'deficit' has been for them. They want to blame all our ills upon it when the solution to most of our 'ills' is staring them in the face.
Here, in Port Talbot, the local Health Trust is in the process of running down a £66million ten year old hospital and people are going to die as a result. The Trust was informed, some time ago by the powers that be, that if the drip drip drip removal of hospital services continued then doctors would no longer be sent their for training and development.
Well, doctors are now no longer sent to the hospital and the Trust is using this to justify wholesale removal of services. This will  force the 50,000 in the catchment area to travel up to 15 miles for A&E and other hospital services. The existing department within the hospital confirms that they have saved lives which would otherwise have been lost had the patient had to travel any further.
Surely, the solution was to re-instate the services that would have ensured that doctors were, once again, sent to the hospital to work. Why is that so difficult? Why is it better to endanger such a large number of people when the hospital could have thrived.
To add insult to injury, the hospital that most would have to travel to, Morriston Hospital in Swansea, are stretched almost to breaking point as it is. Regularly, ambulances can be seen queuing to unload their patients at their A&E with some remaining on board in excess of an hour.
When a similar decision was made about Worthing Hospital in Sussex, 1000's of people took to the streets and the decision was reversed. Do the good people of Port Talbot have to do the same? Can the right decisions only be made after disruption and riot?
Wake up people of Port Talbot! Once you've lost your hospital, you'll never get it back!