Southport CARES

The CARES Group organised a public meeting on the evening of Wednesday, 19th October 2005 at KGV on Scarisbrick New Road. The main speaker of the evening was Mr Richard Hallett of the National Childbirth Trust who spoke for about an hour on how Southport could have a unit similar to that at Crowborough in East Sussex. The GP-led birthing unit there was similarly threatened with closure on the grounds of cost, safety and under use by local women. The Friends of Crowborough Hospital campaigned successfully for it to remain open as a midwife-led unit, demonstrating that costs per birth were in fact lower than in the obstetric unit and that the small unit was cost effective. This information about costing was key in persuading the trust to keep the unit open. Confidence grew in the unit over a two-year trial period as an inclusive approach to monitoring services and clinical standards maintained a high quality service. A successful publicity leaflet was produced to inform local women and GP's about the centre and since then, birth rates at the unit have continued to rise and it is now a popular choice with local women. View the current leaflet available to mothers-to-be in Crowborough here.
Jonathan Parry, the Chief Executive of the Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust, however, was unrepentant and maintained he had always acted in the best interests of the mother and baby by taking full notice of the advice given to him by health professionals. The main fault with this attitude appears to be that health professionals may tend to be over-cautious. This resulted in the situation where doctors recommended mothers-to-be to attend Ormskirk hospital, the place where all backup units were situated in case of medical emergency during childbirth. Births at the Southport Midwife Led Unit were stifled, the unit was underutilised and it has now been forced to close on the grounds of cost. The MLU did not stand any chance of remaining open whilst the hospital administration remained uncommitted to its future.
However much we may all tend to believe that a full maternity unit should be reinstated back in Southport, we must always recognise that hospital administrators are accountable for their actions to someone and do not downgrade or remove services from any location without much thought and consideration towards the medical welfare of their patients. But, unfortunately, they remain unaccountable directly to the residents of Southport and take no account of the inconvenience, cost and heartache that inevitably ensues from their much considered actions.

The CARES group has issued their account of the meeting here and describe here why our MP John Pugh was not invited to this important meeting. They have also issued this open letter requesting an answer from John Pugh.

The closure of such important facilities as these is not unique to Southport. Similar things are happening throughout the country, for example at Macclesfield, as reported here.

The BBC Panorama programme on 26th March 2006 highlighted some of the causes of the major problems perceived currently in the NHS. You can view comments, and add your own, on their website here.

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The CARES hospital pressure group, created in 2003 by The Southport Party, has always opposed any reductions of hospital services affecting the residents of Southport.
We resolutely support their efforts to get a proper Children's Accident and Emergency service returned to Southport.
We also wholeheartedly support their attempts to get the return of a FULL Maternity suite to Southport.

The CARES Group have further details of the Children's A&E campaign and the Maternity campaign on their website which we recommend to you at http://www.cares.ukhome.net/
Shortly after the formation of the ALL-PARTY CARES Group in 2003, ALL of the Liberal Democrat representatives and some other members whose objectives differed from CARES and digressed from the agreed CARES code of conduct, were expelled. They then formed their own pressure group, "Save Our Services" (SOS) to which The Southport Party gave its best wishes. Unfortunately, however, the SOS group appeared to be politically fuelled and campaigned for lesser objectives than the CARES Group - e.g. a "Minor Injuries Unit" and the "Maternity Led Unit". This diluted the effect of both the CARES and SOS campaigns and "focus"sed people's attention onto political differences rather that the matters in hand. For example, the introduction of the religious beliefs of a member of the Cares Group by John Pugh MP (reported by the Champion Newspaper, 3rd September 2003 and the Formby Times, 11th September, 2003), with the apparent objective of discrediting her reputation, was completely out of order.

The Southport Party fully supports the policies and actions of the CARES group in their opposition to the reductions in local patient services at both the Southport and Ormskirk hospitals made in recent years. The campaign's primary objective had been for the full reinstatement of the Children's Accident and Emergency Department in Southport. Nw it seems that they must campaign vigorously for even the reinstatement of a Midwife Led Unit. The Southport Party drew attention to the changes at our local hospitals when, in 2003 we created this group of concerned local mothers, health professionals and representatives from The Southport Party, the Southport Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.
ALL of the Liberal Democrats were EXPELLED from the group for inappropriate behaviour soon after the formation of the group - they preferred to pursue the lesser objective of a children's "walk-in" centre, described by one Southport health professional as "the equivalent of a school nurse".
Amongst those expelled was Mr John Pugh MP and others of his party.
Shortly following this, in an act that seems difficult to justify, Mr John Pugh figured in this front-page news in the Southport Champion.
CARES issued an explanation for their expulsion here.
The letter of expulsion here.
You may form your own opinions of who is to blame for these events.

As we initially predicted, stories have since abounded demonstrating the inconveniences to patients and the dangers to the health of adults and children alike, particularly regarding the removal of Children's A&E to Ormskirk. It can only be a matter of time before a child actually dies as a direct result of these changes. A survey carried out by us showed a virtual 100% opposition by the residents of Southport. The marches in Southport and Formby were not about the creation of a school nurse service in Southport.
A survey in early 2005 showed the overwhelming majority of people in Southport continues to be in favour of the return of Children's A&E to Southport.
Our initial belief was that the objections to these moves should be common to all political parties representing this town and all its residents and visitors - that aspiration motivated us to invite the other political parties to send representatives to the initial CARES group meeting at Trinity Church Hall on 25th June 2003. Unfortunately it was consequently demonstrated that some politicians think more of political point scoring and party politics than they do of the lives of our children or our mothers-to-be.
The CARES group are continuing their campaigns to get lost services fully restored in Southport.
Typical of the reactions to the loss of Southport's Children's Accident and Emergency Department is this letter from an embittered former member of Southport's emergency services.

The quote by Rt Hon John Reid, MP, Secretary of State for Health at the NHS Confederation Annual Conference, 26th June 2003 seems a clear contradiction of reality in this NHS area:
"The principle of the NHS is defined around the needs of the patients, not the needs of the providers, however important we are."
BUT! - Southport's children are patients.
They need a proper Accident and Emergency Department in Southport.
But where is it - IN ORMSKIRK, THAT's WHERE!
SO WHO CAN BELIEVE THE GOVERNMENT ANY MORE?
AND WHO CAN BELIEVE IN OUR MP ANY MORE, WHO WANTS JUST A MINOR INJURIES UNIT?
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO GET TO THE A&E DEPARTMENT AT ORMSKIRK HOSPITAL?
HOW DO YOU FANCY TRAVELLING THERE IN ICE AND FOG WITH YOUR SICK CHILD?
HOW DO YOU FANCY TRAVELLING THERE IN MID-SUMMER WHEN THE ROADS ARE BLOCKED WITH HOLIDAY MAKERS TRAFFIC?

The booklet "Keeping the NHS Local - A New Direction of Travel" - Reference Number 30102, first published in February 2003 can be obtained here as a .pdf file.
It was the publication of this booklet when it was was brought to the attention of The Southport Party by Bryan Naylor that led to the creation of CARES just a few months later. Some local politicians may have been involved several years ago, before The Southport Party was created in 2002, in negotiations regarding the future of hospital services in Southport and Ormskirk, but they failed miserably in stopping the Hospital Authorities from progressing their controversial schemes.