Sally Allen: Vital meeting tonight to decide cardiac units future

Mea culpa.

I made a mistake in my last column regarding my understanding that doctors had to take the Hippocratic Oath – they don’t. My mistake was pointed out by Dr David F Senior MB.BS. DA. FFARCS. Consultant Anaesthetist (retired), and of course many apologies to him. 

However, I do find this discovery more than a bit disappointing as I always thought that taking the Oath was something that made doctors stand out as a special beacon of light in our rather dim and increasingly disappointing society. Another romantic illusion of my youth dashed to the ground!

So, I have done more homework, the original Hippocratic Oath (dating back to Ancient Greece) is one of the earliest expressions of medical ethics. 

Today, it is not a legal requirement in any country. Doctors don’t need to swear the oath to practice medicine. Many medical schools around the world still use some form of the oath, often during graduation ceremonies. 

However, the wording has been modernised or replaced (e.g. the Declaration of Geneva by the World Medical Association). 

Some schools allow students to write their own pledges or choose whether to recite one at all. So, instead of relying on the Hippocratic Oath, doctors are now bound by: Medical ethics codes (e.g. GMC’s Good Medical Practice in the UK, AMA Code of Ethics in the US). Law and regulation (licensing boards, malpractice laws, patient rights).

Therefore, the bottom line is, the Hippocratic Oath is symbolic and traditional, not compulsory. What really governs doctors are modern professional codes of conduct and national medical regulations. 

All very well and good, but I think that the symbolism of taking the Oath was good because it allowed us to believe that all our medics were on a higher plane.

This of course, brings me back to our very personal situation to save the acute status of our Torbay Hospital at all costs. 

At present I am consumed with this cause, and not just because I have a very personal interest in the outcome as my husband suffers from heart failure and relies on quick access to the Cardiac Unit at the hospital. 

My passion goes back much further back, in fact from when I was only 10 years old when I became personally aware of the time constraints in saving someone’s life when they suffer a heart attack. 

Without any doubt when my father had his first massive heart attack the experience was life changing to me and the images of this nightmare are still vivid in my mind. His aorta was severely damaged, and, in those days, they didn’t have the extraordinary advancements that they have today. 

Even so, the hospital still managed to keep his heart beating for a few more years, for which I am eternally grateful. However, if it had happened now, he could have looked forward to many more years of a normal life and not died at only just 60 years of age. Hence, I want to ensure the opportunity to have lifesaving treatment available to everyone.

To this end, The Heart Campaign has now formed an official committee led by the redoubtable and inspiring Susie Colley and supported by the recently retired, Torbay Hospital consultant cardiologist who has been recognised nationally for his outstanding clinical research leadership in the NHS, Dr Phil Keeling; Councillor Nicole Amil; Margaret Forbes-Hamilton; Ben Tisdale and myself. 

We have now opened a bank account for fund-raising, appointed legal representation and will also start crowd funding to enable us to fight the ICB at every and any level required. 

We can all hope that good sense will prevail and that the powers that be in the NHS will see the error of their ways, but so far, that seems highly unlikely.

I am very pleased that, although very late to the party, the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust is inviting people across the Bay and beyond to have their say on the future of local health and care services. 

Long overdue but better late than never, although would it have happened if the Heart Campaign hadn’t been so proactive in standing up for the rights of our community?

So, to repeat, if you have a heart attack in South Devon the team at Torbay Hospital Cardiac unit will be ready to receive you.  

On route to the hospital the paramedics will do an ECG that will be sent in real time to the CATHLAB at Torbay Hospital. When you arrive, you will be taken directly to the Cardiac unit where you will receive immediate treatment; probably a stent will be inserted to return blood flow to the muscles in your heart.

Once the heart muscles are starved of oxygen they die. If you are not treated within a very short space of time, you may live but your heart will not be the same and you may be left with severe impacts to your health.    

Torbay Hospital Cardiac Unit is in the top four performing units in the country.

If you must go all the way to the Royal Devon and Exeter - for your MI (Myocardial infarction /Heart Attack) you stand a significantly higher chance of dying or suffering long-term problems like heart failure.

The Heart Campaign is fighting to save Torbay Hospital. If we were to lose any important part of our cardiology service eg pPCI other parts of the service would rapidly follow and ALL cardiology services (heart failure care, rhythm problems, research, inherited and congenital heart problems) would likely follow.  Not only that, but many other vital services would be threatened like a pack of cards.  We really don't want Torbay hospital to be relegated to a non-acute cottage hospital, do we?

The government has appointed Integrated Care Boards throughout the UK who are working for the government to make a ‘Case for Change’ to ‘develop and commence implementation of a plan to eliminate unwarranted duplication of specialist DGS (district general hospital services).  

In other words, merging hospitals and hospital services. The ICB has responded to public pressure, but this threat has not gone away.   

In some urban conurbations this possibly makes sense, but in South Devon we have long distances between the towns in the bay and the villages around Newton Abbot and Totnes. 

In the summer our population increases significantly. We can all see thousands of new houses being built in our towns and villages. We cannot lose hospital services at a time when the population is increasing.

If we lose Torbay Hospital WE WILL lose lives.         

We all understand that the NHS needs to be made more efficient BUT not at the expense of our friends and families because the wrong strategic decisions are made. 

There will be another public meeting next week, with Dr Dirk Felmeden (Cardiologist, Torbay Hospital) presenting ‘A Case for Change in the Cardiology Dept Torbay Hospital’. It will take place at 5pm for a prompt 5:30pm start on Tuesday August 26 (TODAY) at the Riviera International Centre. Please come and support our hospital.

Car Parking is free for those attending the meeting, but you must register your car registration to benefit from this.