3 December 2005

Rt Hon Tony Blair MP
House of Commons
Westminster London
W1A 1AA

Dear Mr Blair

I read in a news report the other day that you had decreed that our hospital, the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, absolutely had to lose several of its most important services so that the NHS could save money.

Clearly these are not services that will affect your family. If they were, you might be singing a different tune. We fought hard to get an adequate hospital for Redditch , after it was designated a New Town for Birmingham overspill. It's still growing.

It was decided then that the idea was untenable because of the size of the area that it serves, and many thousands of pounds were ploughed into improving A&E facilities.

What's to happen to these improvements, this equipment? Will it all be shipped over to Worcester ? - and if it is, where will Worcestershire Royal put it? Where and how will Worcestershire Royal cope with its massive extra workload if A&E, Maternity, Paediatrics and Oncology patients from the huge Redditch area are added to its current burden? It already sends its overflow A&E and Maternity patients to the Alex. Parking for those lucky enough to have cars is already a nightmare at Worcester , with local residential roads blocked by cars that can't find a parking space in the grounds. For the many without cars, a trip to Worcester involves at least 2 changes of bus and a journey of at least 2 hours, in each direction. Not very clever for people with sick relatives to visit, for people with clinics to attend, for people who have to take time off work to fulfil these needs.
The proposals have not been thought through, have not even been costed out: no-one knows whether they will achieve the desired savings; but the health and well-being of the local community - your voters, for Redditch is held by a Labour MP - are being put at serious risk.

Further, if these slashes in local services go ahead without serious reforms among the people who manage the money, we could find ourselves in exactly the same position a couple of years from now, but with fewer services to slash. We pay our taxes, our National Insurance; you hand the money out. If other people mismanage the budget so that we finish up so far in debt, we who have paid must not be the ones to suffer. We have not broken the contract: the finance managers have.

Get real, Mr Blair. Six and a half years ago, my own daughter could have died had the Alex not been so close. To be prepared to let people like my daughter die for the sake of centralisation of services and protection of bad management is a very, very brave political move.

I pray that you aren't that stupid.

With every blessing, and every hope,

Val Gaize

Copies:

John Maples MP
Jacqui Smith MP
David Nicholson, Chief Executive, West Midlands South Strategic HealthAuthority
Catherine Griffiths, Managing Director, West Midlands South Strategic HealthAuthority
Tamar Thompson, Director of Nursing, West Midlands South Strategic HealthAuthority
Bronwen Bishop, Director of Communications, West Midlands South Strategic
Health Authority
Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health - who disclaims responsibility
Revd Richard Deimel, Vicar of the parish of Studley with Mappleborough Green
John Rostill, Chief Executive, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Michael O'Riordan, Chairman, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust