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Campaigners not happy at meeting
LEADERS of the Save Our Beds (SOB) campaign say they have not been reassured after meeting with managers from the Northern and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on Friday.
They met to discuss what they claim is deliberate under usage of beds and medical facilities at the Goole and District Hospital to pave the way for closing Ward 3 and leasing it off to a private company.
The get-together followed a public meeting earlier in the week at which it was claimed that patients were being sent further afield for treatments that were available in Goole.
Several members of the audience had said although they had elected to have treatment at Goole, when their appointment confirmation arrived they had been booked in elsewhere.
Organiser of the campaign, former nurse Josie Head, said mixed messages were being sent out by the Trust about what was and was not available at Goole, with some patients also being told there were lengthy waiting times for treatment at Goole when in fact waiting time was only a matter of a few weeks.
After the meeting with Trust managers, including the interim Chief Executive, Karen Jackson and Service and Business Development Manager Gabby Sadowyj, Mrs Head said: "It was not comforting.
"Their purpose was to reassure us and they tried by bombarding us with facts and figures and charts but when it came down to the nitty gritty we were not reassured at all."
The trust had, she said, denied playing any active part in denying medical and surgical treatment at Goole for local people.
"They claimed they had no knowledge as to why people who had asked for treatment at Goole had not been sent there.
"So we asked who was denying access in that case and they said all they could reiterate was it was not the Trust.
"They also confirmed that the average waiting time for surgery in Goole is only three to four weeks," said Mrs Head, who stressed that every kind of operation could be carried out at Goole, apart from major abdominal and cardiac surgery, while the medical ward - ward 3 - could deal with anything except paediatrics and chest pains.
The delegation, led by MP Andrew Percy and including councillors Keith Moore and Jean Kitchen, asked the managers if they had an agenda to cut medical beds on ward 3 to 15 and rehabilitation beds to 15 to free space for the private sector.
"They said they had no hidden agenda - yet I know they have told staff they were looking to create a one ward situation," said Mrs Head. "There are adverts on the radio and elsewhere for cosmetic surgery at Goole. It comes to something when you can have a facelift but you can't get medical treatment."
Mrs Head said further talks with the Trust are planned at which she had been asked to supply numbers of people who have been sent for treatment elsewhere - except heart patients. Anyone affected can contact Mrs Head at 30 Westparkside Goole, DN14 6XN phone 01405 780866.
A Trust spokesman said: "We held a productive private meeting with the local MP, councillors and Mrs Head and have agreed to work together in the interests of the patients of Goole and district."
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Weather for Goole
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
