September 2007

Things have moved on since my last 'missive' in the September issue.

My pensioner with the replacement hip is recovering well, although he is not supposed to drive. However, the other pensioner (happens to be his wife!) still has to get to St Albans 3 times a week for dialysis and managed to get an appointment for her knee operation for Wednesday 19th September.

Goody, goody they say and look forward to the day. Unfortunately, once again fate takes a hand and  she manages to 'knock' her other leg on a wheelchair at St Albans on the Friday prior to the operation date.
Just a small 'graze' which swells up like there was no tomorrow. The ambulance is called and taken to A&E at West Herts and admitted. Naturally, on admission is given a sheet of paper saying that the ward is closing on the following Monday, but not to worry, she will be transferred to another ward (Aragon, which will also be closing in a few weeks). On the other hand you may end up at the trauma ward at Level 5 Princess Michael of Kent block at Watford – complete with a leaflet on how to get there!!

As 'luck' would have it, she was transferred to Stevenage, and the repair operation set for the following Tuesday. Naturally, Stevenage didn't tell St Albans that their 'body' was being dialysed there and they rang up to find out where she was.
The operation was carried out on the Tuesday (remember, the Wednesday knee operation – come on, keep up!) and was successful but naturally the other operation was cancelled once again. The following Monday she was discharged and sent home as she was well enough to look after herself and just need to return at the end of the week to have the dressing removed.

Meanwhile, dialysis still has to be done. She can't drive and her husband has just had a hip replaced. Not to worry, the kind offer of meals on wheels is turned down as not required – transport is!
The Wednesday 'oil change' is carried out with some difficulty and Friday brings the challenge of the 'oil change' at St Albans in the morning and dressing removal in Stevenage in the early afternoon. They managed to be only 15 minutes late at Stevenage, only to find the dressing had melded nicely into the skin, so new dressings applied and another appointment made a week later for further inspection. Help was again requested and now 'they' will send some forms 'in the next few weeks'.
Remember both are around 80, one has to have dialysis done every 2 days at St Albans and has a knee problem and the other leg has just been operated on, anything else has to be done at Stevenage. The other has heart and lung problems coupled with a recent hip replacement.

Because they live in a bungalow, mobility is not considered a problem. They don't even have the luxury of a bus service within a 20 minute zimmer frame walk.

To be continued...........

Meanwhile, still in September 2007

Wasn’t the Hospital Trust meeting at the Civic Centre on 24th September interesting?
About 55 members of the public turned up to hear the latest on the West Herts Hospital Trusts’ cunning plans to improve our local health service.
Main points were:
The Watford Hospital will not be ready to accept any more work until September next year at the earliest.
Hemel has already closed two wards, A & E patients are being taken to Watford. It's considered better to have one 24hr A&E rather than two 12hr A&E departments.
DoH suggests that when services are transferred to a new location, the old services should continue to be provided until the new are available.
The local Trust is no longer in debt, so the changes are nothing to do with saving money.
Public transport services are nothing to do with them, so are ignored.
Staff for the Watford hospital will be drawn from local residents who currently commute elsewhere (thus freeing up road space to allow ambulances easier access).
Patients will normally only remain at Watford for a day or two, when they will be transferred back to their local facilities.
The rumour regarding building a new hospital in Hemel was partly confirmed with the revelation that it would be easier to build a NEW hospital than adapt an existing one. This was the Mr Laws preferred route, although the location was problematical.
The audience thought that the original CNT site (aka Paradise Fields) would be an excellent choice and enable the Watford site to be developed as a community hospital.
The Trust had already taken into account the increase in population and additional journey time for patients when the decision was taken to develop Watford rather than Hemel/St Albans option.
The proposed Watford brownfield site is not contaminated, nor liable to flooding as consultants had tested it. (similar consultants to those who gave the OK to develop the Manor Street site and where all the planted trees have now died!, I expect).
The proposed paediatrics A&E will now be at Watford instead of Hemel as the DoH guidelines say that all facilities must be available and only Watford will have them, it follows then that the award winning birthing unit is unlikely to have a future.

What does it mean to us in Berkhamsted?

In the recent Berkhamsted Transport report, 69% considered that getting to Hemel Hempstead Hospital was difficult. No mention of Watford, but must be considered equal or worse. The idea is that as long as you are not at deaths door, then the local facilities will deal with you. Indeed, we were assured that Watford was the place of last resort and time spent there kept to the minimum. Transport between the acute Watford unit and other local facilities will be dealt with easily by the current ambulance service. No mention was made of the privatised system currently experiencing the obvious problems.
As I reported in the 'Citizen' newsletter, if all goes to plan, the system will be a great improvement. The small difficulty is the track record of the management team suggest that the risk assessment solution of putting in place 'contingency plans' may not be adequate and we end up worse than the current situation.
The future of the Hemel unit is problematical. We are assured that diagnostics and short term recovery wards will continue to operate, Then the suggestion of a new build 'Dacorum Hospital' could be a reality is mentioned with the backing of the Chief Executive who explains it would be easier to build new, rather than modify existing. This is the very same executive who considers it better to develop the existing Watford hospital rather than build a new hospital on 'virgin' land set aside in the 1950's for just such a project to meet the needs of an expanding Hemel Hempstead and we even smelt the money in the 1970's.
The birthing unit fails the 'back up facilities' test along with most of the other facilities currently carried out at Hemel as the thinking goes along the lines of you put the staffing in one place along with the expertise, so you can not put customers (that's us!) in danger by not providing the very best care. Just remember, the diagnostics and investigations are going to be carried out at Hemel. Or not!
Do not be surprised if the 'consultation', which ended on October 1st, confirms the acute services review and generally ignores the local opinion. Similar proposals are in place for North Herts as well and the natives are also up in arms.
To be fair, the proposals make sense if you start from where they are starting from and the system works as they are proposing. However, the risk assessment and the customers (aka patients) suggest the changes will not go smoothly and the improvements to patient care envisaged not realised.
Only time will tell.

It was a shame the Town Council couldn't move their meeting to the Tuesday. The reason given was that a couple of months notice was not enough to rearrange the date, so the odd Councillor actually stayed while the majority toddled upstairs to the Council chamber.

Amongst the little gems that occurred in this meeting was the much published resurrected alternative plane for the Water Lane car parking area has not even been considered by the Council for some 10 years. The minutes for the also resurrected CARP project were approved, although Cllr. Gibbs did query where the name 'Port of Berkhamsted' came from and was referred to a report by a Dr Hilling. I've not had any luck locating this report so far, but a Inland Waterways newsletter last year was this: 'Some of you may remember CARP – the Canal and Riverside Partnership of which included IWA, BW, Dacorum and Berkhamsted Councils that did much to improved the waterside environment of the ‘Port of Berkhamsted’.' Like Cllr. Gibbs, I've yet to find a long term resident who had heard of this description prior to the late 1990's.

I think that's enough of me for one issue, so with luck, I'll be back next month trying to keep you up to date with things like 'will the Christmas Tree still exist for the Festival of Light' or even perhaps  asking if Bobbys had to replace their sign due to being in the conservation area, what about the System 1 sign on the corner of Holliday Street?