Sally Allen: Tell us how Torbay cardiac unit made a difference

To update you all on the progress, and sometimes the lack of it, being made by us in the Heart Campaign, here is the latest feedback on what is currently going on.

However, by the time this is published it could well be out of date, so please follow the Heart Campaign on Facebook for daily progress reports.

The following piece was written by Margaret Forbes-Hamilton for the U3A (University of the Third Age) monthly newsletter, which neatly sums the situation.

“Many of you will have been aware through the news of the threat to the cardiology services at Torbay Hospital. This threat has not gone away, & residents from the area served by the hospital are fighting to save the department in its entirety through ‘The Heart Campaign’.

Our cardiology department is amongst the best in the country, lives are saved there but imagine the difference if an emergency had to try & get to Exeter rather than Torbay.  Currently, Exeter does not have the capacity to cope with its own current workload, let alone extra from the Torbay catchment area. Why change a system that is working well?

The more we have researched, the more we have found that there is a real & present threat not only to cardiology, but to the whole hospital.  We need & deserve a full hospital service & not to have it downgraded to cottage hospital status.”

Further to this, Susie Colley and myself met with Joe Teape, CEO of the Torbay Hospital Trust and Simon Tapley, their Chief Strategy and Planning Officer last week to try to get some answers.

I am pleased to say that we have made a little progress but are still awaiting a number of answers. Having said that, we are still a long way off from getting satisfactory answers as the fundamental problem is the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and we hope to meet with them this coming week to try to ascertain some more answers. 

The cardiologists at Torbay Hospital have already sent the ICB a workable solution to the major problem of the Royal Devon & Exeter’s huge waiting lists, by offering to take more of their patients. Our super-efficient and highly acclaimed Torbay Cardiac Unit took approximately 300 of their patients last year to help clear the RD&E’s lists.

So, the process is proven to work and Torbay has room to accept more. With the two hospitals helping each other, in theory and with good sense, the solution is in front of the ICB without having to risk the lives of those in the catchment area of Torbay Hospital. 

Just take a look at the map attached here. If you live in Torbay, we know very well that any heart attack patient would not survive the trip to Exeter, just imagine if you lived south of Dartmouth. Clearly there wouldn’t even be any point in phoning for an ambulance!

Our meeting did identify how we can all be proactive in helping to keep our Cardiac Unit open. The ICB is duty bound to take soundings from the public, and clearly this should have been done before they got to this crisis point. So, to endeavour to short cut the process and to ensure that the best case is put forward to them – we need your help.

PLEASE can you send us your personal stories of how the Cardiac Unit saved your, your loved ones or your friend’s life. 

Also include that if you had been taken to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, you would have been unlikely to have survived the trip. Please send us your story via email only to: susie.colley@outlook.com

Please include your name, address, age and by doing so, you will have agreed for us to share your story with the Torbay Hospital Trust and the One Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB)

If you can do this, we will present the case of the vast number of people who have had their lives saved by the Cardiac Unit, and who are also attending the unit for on-going treatment. 

For example, how many of you could make the round trip of 50 to 100 miles by public transport for any follow-up treatment? Not everyone has a car, and even if you do, it is a tortuous drive and expensive too. So, the more you can tell us, the stronger our case will be.

Also, if there is anyway you can get the word out to more and more people, we would appreciate it. ‘People Power’ is the way forward and although the campaign has been featured on television; on numerous occasions in Torbay Weekly and also on social media, there are still thousands and thousands of the local population who are unaware.

So, if you are a member of a club, please tell all the other members; all family members need to be included as this is not just a problem for those of us getting older, heart problems can hit you at any age and even if you are super-fit.

Nobody will be safe if the Cardiac Unit is merged with the RD&E and, if it does get moved, the whole health system in Torbay and surrounding areas will fall like a pack of cards and the knock-on effect of that, will ripple out to every other department of the hospital.

The ICB’s across the country are looking to make cuts and merge departments of hospitals where they can, and our situation has been mirrored in other rural towns like Goole for example, where they are fighting to keep their services too.

This initiative makes sense in a large city like London or Manchester when acute hospitals are probably no further than 3 miles apart, but in a rural hospital with large distances and bad roads, it makes no sense whatsoever.

So, let us know what the Torbay Hospital Cardiac Unit means to you.