Letters - September 4, 2016

More than a third of the underlying deficit which sparked the crisis has been caused by a rise in payments to Spire Healthcare Ltd

Payments to the firm – which owns the Spire Fylde Coast Hospital on St Walburgas Road – went up by £1.24 m to £5.5m, a 29 per cent increase on the previous year.

Until recently, the Fylde public have seen little difference to their healthcare, apart from greater difficulties in seeing their GPs.

From now on all that will change as quite serious restrictions are introduced on a wide range of procedures, ranging from laser eye surgery to assisted conception. Many medicines will also no longer be available on prescription.

Part of the blame lies with government underfunding, but the massive rise in payments to Spire has certainly made a significant contribution to Blackpool CCG’s financial difficulties.

Ultimately, the rise of private medicine locally will be at the expense of struggling Victoria Hospital and of the patients whose health needs can no longer be catered for.

In 2013 Spire complained to the health regulator, Monitor, that both Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG had broken the rules by diverting patients to the Vic. After a thorough investigation, Monitor said the evidence did not support Spire’s claims.

However, it ruled that both CCGs were not doing enough to promote patient choice.

Since then, Spire has made an all-out attempt to win more work, and has even employed its own GP liaison officer with a remit to increase the hospital’s market share.

Private operators like Spire operate within the law but they tend to “cherry-pick” the easiest cases and leave the harder one to the NHS.

The luxury of private medicine sounds great, but patients need to remember that if anything goes wrong during an operation they will have to be blue-lighted by ambulance to the Vic. And if there are problems in after-care, private providers simply do not have the facilities to deal with significant risk.

But the worst consequence is that the money spent on Spire chips away at Victoria Hospital’s own budget. The Vic is the mainstay of our local NHS and it is already struggling with deep financial difficulties. The more money Spire receives, the greater those problems will become.

David Owen

Westcliffe Drive

Layton

LOCAL POLITICS

Say goodbye to this sorry county bunch

The only noise from Lancashire County Council of late is the sound of very expensive pigeons coming home to roost. The ruling group at county has allegedly spent a vast sum on a study about how to save money – you would have to laugh if it wasn’t so serious.

Since Labour took over the reins at County Hall nearly four years ago, the size of its fiscal problems have ballooned, and the only thing that has saved us from massive council tax increases to pay for this incompetence is the Government cap.

Apart from spending millions of pounds of public money they do not have, they have spent the last four years doing nothing but blaming government cuts, and failing to tailor their budget to the money available.

It is time to say “Goodbye” to this sorry bunch, and it looks like Coun Borrow, deputy leader and committee member for performance improvement has had the same idea, as coming from his direction are the sounds of a lifeboat being launched as he abandons county to the fate he has created, and paddles off into the gloom.

Gordon McCann

Preesall

DEFENCE

Are nuclear convoys really safe on roads?

A group of volunteer ‘Nuke Watch’ patrols track convoys carrying nuclear warheads from Aldermaston, Berkshire to Coalport, Scotland.

The MoD wants to keep the convoys secret, however heavy transport accompanied by security and fire trucks, comprising 20 vehicles, raises their profile as they drive up and down our motorways. A You Gov opinion poll found two-thirds of people know nothing of the convoys, with the risks posed from accidents.

The MoD states the convoys are safe, but post-mortems of emergency exercises reveal the MoD and the emergency services would have “serious difficulties” dealing with such disasters. The MoD has confessed to eight real accidents involving nuclear convoys between 1960 and 2015. In response to requests under freedom of information law, it has given outline details of a further 180 safety incidents on convoys between 2000 and 2016 – convoys have crashed, broken down, got lost, brakes have failed, and fuel has leaked, together with a range of mechanical failures.

Blackpool could be in range from a convoy accident, on the M6, releasing radioactive material. We need to ask local MPs and councillors what strategy is in place to deal with radioactive material and burns? And if volunteers can track these convoys, what about terrorists”?

Marjorie Nye

Knowle Avenue

Blackpool

LANGUAGE

Does the early ‘bird’ catch a male worm?

In Nicola Adam’s column (Gazette Sept 30th), she said that the word ‘bird’ when referring to a female, came at No.1 in the list of terms that women would like to see obliterated from the English language.

I was guilty of using it in my younger days until I was asked (by a girlfriend), if I knew why women were called ‘birds’?

When I said I had ‘no idea’, she replied, “it’s because of the worms that we pick up”.

I never used that term again.

Malcolm Boyce

via email

TRIBUTE

Dave ready to call his final numbers

The final countdown is on for one of Blackpool’s best bingo callers – Dave Freeland at the Empire Bingo .

After 21 years of loyal and dedicated service he is retiring on October 20.I’m sure on behalf of everyone that knows him, they would like to wish Dave a long and happy retirement.

Carol Freeland

via email