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NHS

Which party does Dr Wollaston currently represent?

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Category: NHS

Office of Dr Sarah Wollaston MP Totnes Constituency

Dear Nina,

Which party does Dr Wollaston currently represent?  I am not sure.  I do know she left the Conservative party some time ago.  So I cannot help wondering which element is paying the office expenses, but 'not my bag' as they say.  Incidentally, I had some useful correspondence with her re OUR NHS early on.  I have summarised the strategy as

destabilise>demoralise>dismantle. 

The latter started in about 1988 with Mrs Thatcher's/Milton Friedman's/Chicago School's Internal Market.  All the main organs opposed it, and I did my best alone from Torbay Hospital and the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, ** to oppose it.  ***  The latter was bulldozed for a housing estate in c.1994 against the opposition of the surgeons bar two of ten.  PEOH - > RD&E as the PEOC.  This was under a Tory government and with Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick at the helm of the RD&E.  I had five colleagues at the RD&E then.  There are now 33.  This is in inverse proportion to the available beds.  eg  In February 2018, 8 operating lists were set up one weekend - as Mr Hunt was instructing should happen.  (You will recall he had angered the younger medical staff by calling the service then a 5 day one.)  There were only 12 available beds and as yet hip replacements etc cannot be done from day beds!  Norovirus on one ward and big overflows from the acute medical intake.  We were completely insulated from the latter at the PEOH and had 120 beds including one for children.  And you have heard how at Derriford, almost all elective orthopaedic surgery has been shifted from the NHS  to Care UK.

Safer Together?

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Category: NHS

The closure of over 60% of Community Hospital beds in South Devon, and an even greater proportion in North Devon, was engineered with 'consultations' that were undoubted shams.  In South Devon these were signed off and sealed by 'Healthwatch' Torbay - another UK wide sham and political invention.  The latter gives the illusion of public involvement and empowerment.  There was a large majority in the various 'consultations' pleading, on good grounds, against the closures.  As predicted, the District General Hospitals are failing in many important ways, the IT chaos of the weekend at Torbay being just one example.

This 'consultation' is headed 'Safer Together' (George Orwell lives), and was set up by the Devon and Somerset Fire Authority.  It proposes that eight of the fire stations staffed by retained firemen/women be closed, among other things.  It mimics the 'consultations' regarding the Community Hospitals.  There are familiar words like 'Drop In Sessions'.

Visits of SDHCT - ‘Torbay Trust’ to Private Insurer – Kaiser-Permanente USA

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Category: NHS

Dear Dr Johnson, Sent 30-07-19

It does not appear that I have had an acknowledgment of my e-mail below.  In it you will read that I was to write to the Torbay 'Trust' to find the costs of the visits of Trust board members to the headquarters of Kaiser Permanente in the USA.  I have not done that for lack of time, partly due to resolution of factors in my own health. 

Another reason is Trust tardiness in grasping nettles -
 a.  Admiral Sir Richard Ibbotson
https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/37-articles/nhs/216-an-example-of-the-low-standards-of-ethical-principle-and-thought-in-our-nhs
Another -
b. is the failure of board member Leslie Darke Executive Director of Estates and Commercial Development at TSDFT, to tell me in October 2018 whether staff leaving before retirement were asked in a kindly way their reasons for leaving.  She was obliged. as you know, under the Freedom of Information Act to reply to my simple question within 20 days, and without a need for me to cite this STATUTE and her obligations under it.  I asked her twice.  The ICO (the overwhelmed Information Commissioners Office) was contacted and after delay, prised the following out of the Trust this month, at least 9 months after my question. See twin posting: Retention of Nursing Staff: Failure of Leslie Darke, Torbay Trust Board Member to Answer a Key Question asked October 2018

I am therefore asking you, on behalf of the CCG to answer these four questions given that the budget which CCG-Corporate Services holds of £1.6 billion funds the 'Torbay' Trust.  That is, it commissions services, planning, policy etc within the Trust.

Retention of Nursing Staff: Failure of Leslie Darke, Torbay Trust Board Member to Answer a Key Question asked October 2018

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Category: NHS

Data Protection and Freedom of Information Team

Request for information FS50815962[Ref. FS50815962]

Dear Ms Pearce, 12-07-19 11.45 am

This is a preliminary response.  I first asked Mrs Leslie Darke,  Executive Director of Estates and Commercial Development at TSDFT, in October 2018 whether staff leaving before  retirement were asked in a kindly way their reasons for leaving.  She was a board member.  She was obliged under the Freedom of Information Act to reply to my simple question within 20 days, and without a need for me to cite this STATUTE and her obligations under it.  I asked her again and received this -

21-12-18  Dear David,  Thank you for your question. Via this e-mail I will ask my colleague the Director of Workforce to respond to your question. Happy Christmas to you too. Kind Regards  Lesley

I heard nothing from the 'Director of Workforce'.

Delayed and unclear responses to my request re CCG constitution: Integrated Care System - likely coup de grace for OUR NHS

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Category: NHS

Dr Tim Burke BM Clinical Chair NEW Devon CCG 19th March 2018

Dear Dr Burke,

Thank you for arranging to meet me and my erstwhile colleague David Jameson-Evans. And I also thank you for the letter which followed with the clear minutes made by Clare Doble.

I accept your apologies contained in the letter. I have learned, much too late in the day and with some anger, that there was a worthwhile electoral process for all NEW CCG medical officers. This extract of the minutes adds clarity -

Dr Halpin therefore sought evidence that this was an electedprocess and wrote to the CCG onMarch 3rd 2017, but the documents that Dr Halpinreceived did not give reassurance on the process, detail or clarity as to how theclinically elected membership of the CCG had arisen. (collected correspondence)

In the absence of a coherent response to my question re constitution, and 5 months after I wrote to Dr Jenner of the NEW CCG , I instructed Mr Selman Ansari of Bindmans. He wrote to you on the 22nd August (4), that being over 5 monthssince my brief and courteous letter to Dr Jenner. You replied 25th October.