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Sunday, February 16, 2025
HomeDorset NorthAn open letter to NHS Dorset CCG Customer Care Team

An open letter to NHS Dorset CCG Customer Care Team

Dear Dianne Poulton,

I have decided to make this an open letter as your emailed response to my Dorset Eye piece that I forwarded to the CCG prior to publication has the hallmarks of being a generic reply and did not remotely address the specific query regarding the 80% claim for patients currently arriving at Poole Hospital A&E.

Let me make it clear, I am totally in agreement with a clear sighted drive to deliver a sustainable Health Service for Dorset residents now, in the future and Nationally. Please note we are residents and putative ‘patients’ and not ‘customers’, which has the connotation of making us consumers.

I am, however, critical of the process over which you may or may not have full control. I understand fully that it is a difficult task you are embarked upon. It is complex and fraught with considerable fears and emotions within the public at large. You have various vested interests who will make your progress even more difficult and I guess this has already overtaken the smooth progress that you might have preferred.

I shall come back to the substance of your letter after I have had further reflection on its contents, but I want to focus for the moment on the 80% issue. If you read the answer given in your FAQ that I dealt with in my Dorset Eye piece it states that “Under the current preferred  – my inserted word in italics – proposals, it is estimated that approximately 80% of all current emergency patients arriving at Poole hospital would continue to have their needs met at the Urgent Care Centre at Poole Hospital.

 

I don’t see how this is possible considering the restricted range of conditions the UCCs have been allocated by NHS England.

As you know the following can be treated by a UCC:

·         sprains and strains

·         broken bones

·         wound infections

·         minor burns and scalds

·         minor head injuries

·         insect and animal bites

·         minor eye injuries

·         injuries to the back, shoulder and chest

Whereas the following can not:

·         chest pain

·         breathing difficulties

·         major injuries

·         problems usually dealt with by a GP

·         stomach pains

·         gynaecological problems

·         pregnancy problems

·         allergic reactions

·         overdoses

·         alcohol related problems

·         mental health problems

·         conditions likely to require hospital admission.

Using the reported figures for Poole and Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals as set out in my Dorset Eye piece I have highlighted a disparity and had hoped that, given the opportunity, CCG might have preferred to expand on how this 80% was derived. Instead it was sadly ignored.

You may well be asked why I have taken this trouble. It is simple. You will have a momentous upward task now to carry your preferred option forward whilst the public are just fed information that is partial, simplistic or conversely overly complex, their trust, such as it is, is thereby eroded. I believe we deserve better. If the Major Trauma A&E would truly be better placed at RBCH we need more than just being offered due process and woolly assertions.

Sadly, the political situation has dealt a huge blow to the trust that our medical professional managers have deservedly gained over the years. People are looking behind the decision making and are worried about the future of the NHS continuing to be a truly public service as originally envisioned particularly in the light of the labyrinthine 2012 Act.

I do hope that the CCG will review the way in which the public are engaged, because I fear the current dialogue is somewhat skewed.

Yours sincerely,

John Daniels.

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