Sally Allen: We aren't out of the woods yet

Well, what an unholy mess we are all in.

To put the record straight, we are a very long way off saving the Cardiac Unit at Torbay Hospital. I get increasingly shocked, bewildered and angered by false rumours circulating that everything is fine and dandy and that the proposal has been over-turned. This is very far from the truth of the matter.

So, for the record, the first red flag we uncovered was when the Integrated Care Board (the ICB) proposed the removal of Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI), from the Torbay Hospital to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. 

This was done with zero consultation with the public, which is a clear breach of the majority of the NHS Act 2006 and updated in the Health and Care Act 2012, which states they are required to have undertaken a public consultation on any proposed changes like this. After the huge fuss the community kicked up, this proposal has merely been PAUSED and certainly not abandoned. The ICB eventually apologised to us for the manner in which this had all been handled, but it hasn’t changed anything. No doubt they would never have apologised if they hadn’t been caught out!

For those not sure what PPCI means it is also known as angioplasty, or coronary angioplasty, and is the life-saving procedure used to treat the narrowed coronary arteries of the heart and angina in patients. It is used as an emergency treatment for patients who have had a heart attack and saves numerous lives if the intervention is completed within a maximum of an hour. I have first-hand knowledge of this as it saved my husband’s life back in 2005.

My colleagues and I, on the Heart Campaign committee, have been wading through a quagmire of cotton wool and treacle to try to get answers on the future plans of the ICB, and without doubt it would be easier to extract blood from a stone. We have sent numerous (in fact I have lost count of how many now) Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to both them and Joe Teape, chief executive of the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. We have also met with both parties. Sadly, I am none the wiser, but I suppose that is their plan.

As I have found over the years in dealing with governing bodies and their appointees, they appear to all go to a special school where they learn how NOT to answer a question directly. To basically dress-up any response into confusing flimflam. This is unforgiveable when it comes to matters of life-or-death scenarios. It is also unforgiveable for anyone to conceive that fighting to retain our Cardiac Unit at Torbay Hospital should in anyway end up being political. I can’t imagine that anyone’s last thoughts will be to consider how they voted in the last election or indeed how they are going to in the next, if of course, they are fortunate enough to survive.

It appears that the ICB are not consulting with our cardiologists, and neither are they consulting the public, which is an obvious place to start, unless there is rather a lot that they want to keep quiet.

On one hand Joe Teape reassures us that when investment is available, but who knows when that will be, the cath labs at Torbay will be refurbished. On the other hand, the ICB won’t give a clear answer and continues to judge Devon as a whole, rather than as one very successful Cardiac Unit at Torbay Hospital against a failing one at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

On the same subject, but a slightly different problem is the Virtual Ward for cardiac patients with heart failure which was closed in April. This was done without any prior warning, and I only found out, due to my husband being under the auspices of the cardiac virtual ward at the Torbay, when I telephoned due to my husband needing help, only to find out that none was available. I subsequently have found out that it was due to lack of funding.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Virtual Wards before; they are also known as ‘hospital at home’. They allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital. You are given a mobile number of your specialist nurse you can phone to help you care for your patient. The NHS is increasingly introducing virtual wards to support people at the place they call home, including care homes, because it is a very clever way of saving a lot of money, which would otherwise be tied up in costly hospital stays.

Then a few days ago I have found this on Facebook, posted by Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, so presume somebody has found a stash of cash from somewhere! 

“Something exciting is happening at Newton Abbot Hospital! We’re opening a new service support older people who are living with frailty to receive same-day specialist care in their home or in the community and not in our emergency department. 

We want to make sure people get the right care, in the right place, at the right time and are supported to stay well, recover quickly and remain independent for longer.

But before we open the doors to our new calm and welcoming space, we want your help to choose a name. We want something that feels local, uplifting and meaningful.”

So overall, things are far from rosy, and the black clouds of doom are circling, which means that we still need all the help we can muster from the residents in the Torbay Hospital catchment area. It is important that you follow the Heart Campaign’s Facebook page, which is updated daily.

We need case studies, we need people who can distribute leaflets and posters, we need people who can display banners and importantly we need your donations to keep producing all the information. The details of how you can donate are also on the Facebook page. Most importantly, we need you to spread the word wherever you can and ask everyone you know to tell everyone they know.

We are facing a huge problem, and the next steps are likely to include public demonstrations which could feature us staging a human ring of heartfelt love around our hospital with us all holding hands in an endless link of unity.

Whatever it takes we are prepared to do, and we can only hope that you will join us in saving the Cardiac Unit at Torbay Hospital.