Secure future for rural hospitals 13/05/2008
HEALTH campaigners in Lochaber got the perfect tonic this week with the announcement by Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon which secures "indefinitely" the future of Fort William's Belford Hospital.
Ms Sturgeon accepted the recommendations in a blueprint for remote and rural healthcare, which ends uncertainty for the Belford and five other hospitals in the Highlands and Islands.
For the Belford Action Group (TBag), the group which has been campaigning for the last four-and-a-half years for the retention of 24/7 consultant led services at the Belford, it is a momentous vindication of their efforts which received spectacular and unprecedented backing from the people of Lochaber.
Councillor Michael Foxley, local GP and member of the TBag team told the LN: "We have won our battle and our thanks must first go to the solid and determined support by the people of Lochaber.
"They trusted the TBag steering group of 20 people meeting regularly and an inner core David Sedgwick, Chris Robinson, John Hutchison, Stewart Maclean, Charlie Leeson-Payne and myself.
"The TBag team invented and developed the concept of the Rural General Hospital here in Lochaber and this is now to be the model for all of Scotland's rural hospitals.
"We drew a line in the sand to ensure that our Belford Hospital and the other key hospitals were not down graded to community day hospitals."
The TBag campaign started on a November night in 2003 at the Nevis Centre in Fort William when 2,800 members of the Lochaber community met to protest the NHS Highland's planned downgrading of the Belford Hospital.
It included 9,515 on-line signatures of support, 6,000 letters, car stickers, appearances before the E-petitions Committee at the Scottish Parliament, runner up in the Scottish Politician of the Year award for best campaign and was even featured in a theatre play.
The work of the campaign group included a concerted input to the Solutions Group joint working party to establish the concept of the Rural General Hospital (RGH) and to firmly promote this concept, against the odds, and input to the 2005 Kerr report which addressed the future of the NHS in Scotland.
At the Aviemore Conference on Remote and Rural Health on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon, said: "The future of the six rural general hospitals in the Highlands and Islands is secured indefinitely".
And Garry Coutts, chairman of NHS Highland, said that "their role is permanent".
David Sedgwick, consultant surgeon at the Belford and a member of the TBag team said: "This fundamental change of attitude has taken many thousands of hours of hard and complex work to achieve.
"It was all worthwhile and this is excellent news for the Lochaber community.
"The Belford, with the busiest A&E of all of the Rural General Hospitals, will retain consultant led services with experienced nursing and professional support.
"Pressure will now be put on the health boards to support local care by obligatory clinical networks and on the Royal Colleges and Post Graduate Deaneries to support the required new training programmes."
The drive towards increasing local access to more specialised care and preventative medicine is already happening at the Belford.
For a number of years renal dialysis and low risk chemotherapy treatment has been delivered in Fort William.
Proposals for future developments include an augmented care service in Lochaber which will reduce unnecessary hospital stays by providing visits to patients where they live, and enhanced community rehabilitation services to help people to stay at home for longer or to return home more quickly following a hospital stay.
An NHS Highland spokeswoman said: "The future role for rural general hospitals, such as Belford, has also been clarified.
"This is the culmination of many years of work by clinicians and managers in Highland and, in particular, West Highland, through the solutions group.
"Belford Hospital is well placed to evolve into the RGH described in the Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare report and indeed already provides a high standard and range of services."
Mid Highland Community Health Partnership general manager Gill McVicar said: "The launch of this plan is a great opportunity to build on some of the work that has been done in the past few years and roll out new and redesigned services in our communities.
"I hope we can build up some momentum so we can see more people benefit from modern, integrated services quickly."
A spokesperson for the TBag campaign group added: "Our next campaign will be to have a new Belford Hospital built at Camaghael next to the new Fort William Health Centre."
A Remote and Rural Healthcare Educational Alliance has been established to ensure that staff have access to remote and rural specific education and training.
Final Report of Remote and Rural Steering Group 13 May 2008 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/06084423/0
