The CCG admit that their budget from this government is being cut and cut again.
‘We cannot continue with our support and services as they are currently organised. There are unacceptable differences in life expectancy across Dorset and variation in quality, accessibility and experiences of people using services.
Alongside this, demand for services is going up. At the same time our collective resources, at best, stay the same and at worse, go down. This means we have a predicted gap in our finances if we don’t take action now.
Doing more of the same is not an option. It is not sustainable and won’t improve people’s outcomes or the quality of our services now or for the future.’
Yet they are having to assure Dorset people that as a result of these cuts and the changes they are being forced to make that no one will die or suffer as a consequence. They have to make these pronouncements and have access to a big legal pot to keep the public concerns and challenges at bay. BUT who will be held responsible when this happens?
Here 111 neither brought ‘care closer to home’ nor directed him ‘straight to urgent care’.
“Rang 111 last Saturday. They promised to send a clinician within 30 mins, if no-one attended they would dispatch an ambulance for a suspected back fracture. 60 mins later nothing had happened. Rang 111 who said that it was no longer with them as it had been passed to South West Ambulance and that we would have to dial 999. Rang them and they didn’t have any available help so asked if I should take the risk and drive the friend to Poole Hospital. They said they would “Stand Down ” and I drove my friend in. It turns out that she had a fracture. No ambulances in the Poole area on a Saturday afternoon. Certainly no “Choice of settings” would have helped us. Just get real and don’t bu**s*it.”
