Sally Allen: People power works if we try harder

Further to my past columns in this newspaper, and I am delighted to say that it has had over 34,000 views on Facebook, here is an update on where we are with the Heart Campaign in saving our acute status at the Torbay Hospital.

We are making very slow progress but still waiting for answers to a vast number of questions. We have also not received any official reassurance of our greatest fears either. Meanwhile, our Heart Campaign committee have been very busy researching all over the UK for similar towns in the same boat as us.

Our thinking was, that this initiative couldn’t just be targeted on Torbay, and we were correct, but even we were surprised to learn that there are so many towns concerned for the future of their hospitals and already other on-going campaigns in action.

So, we reached out to Mike Forster who has recently been into battle to save the Huddersfield services and wards. Astonishingly, Mike’s fight started nearly 10 years ago, and he explained to us “We did lots of fund raising and crowd funding. We raised £80,000 over 2 years but also had legal aid so we had a war chest!”

They held a one-day event, which was meticulously planned with the help of Michael Mansfield QC, whose Chambers took witness statements from around 100 local people from all backgrounds including patients, health professionals, politicians, and members of the public.

Around 30 of these people were selected to speak to an independent panel of experts which considered all of the evidence and came to a conclusion about local healthcare provision in the light of real people’s experiences. Unsurprisingly, they concluded the proposed A&E closure at Huddersfield Hospital, should not go ahead.

Whilst this had no legal bearing on the proposed closure, it still marked a turning point in the campaign’s public profile and huge public support with over 500 people turning out to sit through the day’s proceedings. Some of the evidence was later submitted to a judicial review three days later, which saw a judgement passed in favour of the campaign and the A&E was saved.

The campaign group Hands Off Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HOHRI), chaired by Mike Forster, which is fighting to save all local hospital services in Huddersfield, is now gearing up to launch its own People’s Commission into healthcare provision across the whole of Kirklees.

HOHRI has come a long way since the initial proposals were first announced in 2016. At that stage, local health bosses intended to move A&E from Huddersfield to Halifax and to demolish the local hospital, HRI. To fight back, the local people staged the biggest campaign in Huddersfield’s history with a huge demonstration of 8,000 people.

At Leeds Crown Court in 2018, a judge found that there were at least five counts of public law which had to be tested in a full judicial review. Before the case went before the court, in a separate but linked development, Jeremy Hunt, the then Secretary of Health, announced that the proposal was not in the best health interests of the people of Huddersfield or Halifax and vetoed the plan, demanding instead the health bosses should return to the drawing board. Clearly, the threat of a pending judicial review forced Mr Hunt’s hand as this was the first time a Secretary of State had vetoed a local Health Trust proposal.

This all means that there is a precedent, and Mike and his team are prepared to help us take things to the next level. Public anger and awareness will be the key to harness sufficient support and anger about any downgrading of services at Torbay Hospital. We can now also draw on the support of ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ and ‘Health Campaigns Together’ to help with publicising our fight.

Further to this, Susie Colley, chair of the Torquay Chamber of Commerce, Dr Phil Keeling, recently retired cardiologist and myself, met with the powers that be last week; namely the Integrated Care Board for Devon’s CEO Steve Moore, Libby Ryan-Davies, Chief Strategic Commissioning and Planning Officer & Deputy CEO and Steve Clark Stakeholder Engagement and Public Affairs Manager. 

It was a very interesting and worthwhile meeting in which Phil Keeling was able to update them on a number of practice failings and resolutions which are directly responsible for the long waiting times for RD&E and N Devon, and highlight the proposal made by Torbay cardiologists to resolve waiting times by using spare cardiac catheter lab sessions at Torbay and avoid downgrading Cardiology services at Torbay Hospital. However, it would also appear that, being a government department, they are determined to tie themselves up in red tape and not to take the obvious solution!

We are now awaiting a response from the ICB on their, hopefully updated, ‘plan for change’. Most importantly, we cannot just sit and wait and hope for the best, we have to be extremely proactive and focussed for what could be a long fight. To this end, on behalf of the Heart Campaign, we have circulated all the Councillors with a copy of our flyer for printing and distribution or through their social media, newsletters and ward magazines. The flyer can also be printed and used as a poster in local outlets and community noticeboards. So, if you haven’t seen a flyer or poster, please ask your local Councillor. 

In addition, as a completely apolitical campaign, which is only about saving the lives of the community, we are creating a specific WhatsApp Group to bring together all our MPs, council leaders and community figures to coordinate support and share updates to fight for the future of Torbay Hospital.

Every single person in the community has an important role to play in this campaign and none more so than the leaders in the community, who will all hopefully but their personal politics together to work together for the common good.