Hospital Petition Presented

Local Lib Dem campaigner Peter Carroll presented a petition of around 600 names to the Chief Executive of Shepway Primary Care Trust at a meeting in St Mary's Bay earlier today.

Peter attended both the consultation meetings in Folkestone and St Mary's Bay in order to hear first hand the concerns that residents raised.

The Trust put three options on the table for the future of the two rehabilitation wards at the Royal Vic. The options were to keep the wards as they are, to close the wards and relocate them to Dover, or to close the wards and increase the level of services to support elderly people rehabilitating at home.

Peter's petition called for rehabilitation services for the elderly to be kept local and not sent to Dover.

Peter Carroll said "The massive response to the petition was an almighty 'thumbs down' to the idea of moving these services to Dover. Many people told me how sceptical they were that the services provided by the wards could be provided in the local community.

"I have to say that the Primary Care Trust team presented the case for closing the wards and increasing the care services in the community extremely well. I have no doubt that they sincerely believe that this is the right way to go. However, I remain unconvinced that there are enough guarantees and safeguards that these services will actually be delivered and that the level of services for local people will not suffer."

"Care in the community sounds great in theory and undoubtedly has many talented professionals working within it. I trust everybody at Shepway Primary Care Trust, but once these beds have gone, I do not trust the faceless bureaucrats in Whitehall who control the Health budgets. Care in the community projects will be a soft target for budget cuts in future, and therefore the safest option for the future of healthcare in Folkestone is to keep the wards open until a rock solid guarantee can be given that Care in the Community can fulfil the needs of our area now and in the future."

Ends