Last night I was at the Public Meeting on the future of Faversham Cottage Hospital. Thank you to everyone who showed up – it was a full house.
At the start I spoke about the strength of feeling in the community. It was clear that we all want answers: why did the hospital close without warning, why didn’t recruitment start before it closed, and when can we expect it to reopen?
Sadly, many of you don’t feel like you got these answers. Though I am pleased that people still got to say their piece, and the NHS leadership can be in no doubt about people’s views.
We were told that the hospital would shut for 4 weeks but it has now been 8 weeks. People are right to be sceptical. The longer it stays closed, the less likely it is to reopen.
On the one hand the Trust management team say they are trying to recruit staff to reopen it. On the other, most of the presentation they made last night was about ‘Home First’ discharges from hospital and the harm that can be caused by long hospital stays. It didn’t inspire confidence in their commitment to having a community hospital with in-patient rehabilitation in Faversham.
As a former health minister, I didn’t need any lectures on the downsides of long hospital stays, nor did the people in the Alexander Centre. But we all know that a fast discharge isn’t the answer for everyone, and that good in-patient rehabilitation in a facility like the Cottage hospital which encourages people to be mobile and out of bed, is very different from a traditional ‘acute hospital’ stay.
We heard from a local resident last night how her mum (if I recall right) had been discharged to the Cottage hospital after breaking her femur. She received excellent care and rehabilitation which she simply couldn’t have done in her 2-storey Faversham home, like so many properties in the town.
Thank you to everyone who has already signed my petition, which helps get your voices heard. I’m still encouraging people to sign and share it – which has almost reached 3,000 signatures. And if you would like to be involved in campaigning for our local hospital, please let me know.
Sign my petition here
