This is the final instalment of the saga of the Dover Community Hospital and where we are today. My message is not partisan, strictly from someone who has been at the centre for nearly three years and who has sought the best for Dover using the 'due process' that now has the potential to be taken to a Judicial Review.
I finished yesterday at November 2008, when the EKHUT took over the providing of a Community Hospital. This was to be in line with the decision of the KCC-HOSC decisions of 9 May and 5 September 2008, which included all the facilities and more that are outlined in my missives above.
At the time - and still is - the centre of concern was the likelihood of flooding of the proposed Brook House site as well as car parking and the facilities that would be provided. My concern was would it happen? Neither the PCT nor the EKHUT had applied for the government grant that was available for such purpose. Albeit, I knew from attending numerous non-public meetings involving the EKHT (University status gave it the U during 2008), that their main purpose was to be solvent in order to get Foundation status. This would enable them to borrow and make other major financial decisions without going through the PCT.
They had, by that time, applied for Foundation status to come into effect on 1 April 2009. Part of having Foundation status requires Governors to be elected and appointed to act as the checks and balances that the PCT had previously supposedly provided. I duly put my name forward to stand as a Governor. Here a brief explanation on the Hospital Trusts set up is needed. The head of the provision of day to day services is the Chief Executive he/she is beholden to an Executive made up of the Chief Executive, other senior Trust personnel and appointees representing key departments of the Trust as well as 'great and the good' appointees. The Executive is chaired, usually by an appointee - as is the case with the EKHUFT - which it became after 1 April when it successfully gained Foundation Status.
Fifteen stood for the Dover District area, the boundaries of which are the same as those of DDC. Three were to be elected as representatives by members of the public who had filled in the appropriate form allowing them to vote. Out of the fifteen I was the only one who ran on a tight remit, to follow through and build on what I had achieved at the two KCC-HOSC hearings - a full Community Hospital for Dover. I came top of the poll. I later found out that along with the elected Governors there were staff Governors and appointed Governors representing different aspects of the EKHUFT area.
On being elected, I attended Governors' induction meetings, received a copy of the EKHUFT constitution and numerous other documents as well as attending a presentation on the ambitions of the EKHUFT. This was to make the Trust as competitive as possible in order to attract patients from other (non-EKHUFT) areas to use EKHUFT - which is highly lucrative. Also to ensure that patients use the facilities provided by the EKHUFT instead of having to be sent to other Trusts, as they could not be provided/poorly provisioned by the EKHUFT. They were planning on spending some £200+m on achieving this.
At the point when everyone else there seemed to be on a major high of ambition I brought them all down to earth by asking about Dover and district - what was to happen to us? After a bit of huffing and puffing and a number of ferocious looks the assembled audience was told that £20 was to be spent on providing a new facility and that this was already process. Where? I asked, I hadn't seen any evidence of any building work taking place. In a patronising manner (that is how I saw it but was slapped over the wrist by another Governor for saying so), we were told that I could rest assured that it was going ahead ... and the subject was changed.
I now need to go back in time to Spring 2008, and an EKHT Executive meeting that discussed Dover in detail. There it was decided that for our community there were five options:
1. Do nothing and let Dover go to the wind, (shrink back is the word they used) - this was presented as two separate options.
2. Keep the main area of the Buckland Hospital site with the minimal up-grade and sell the rest off.
3. Build a small complex on Buckland Hospital car par, augmented by the PCT's Health Centre on Maison Dieu Road, and sell of the rest of the Buckland Hospital estate.
4. New building elsewhere in Dover - Whitfield was specifically mentioned or adjacent to the present Health Centre.
5. New Building, including the present Health Centre and providing acute, community and primary care.
As you may remember from the press, options 2+3 was the final choice before 9 May KCC-HOSC. The latter two options were estimated to cost some £23m while the others were minimal.
I will also remind you of the 2006 and the Dover Project, that most people in Dover said NO to and was formally eclipsed by the 9 May KCC-HOSC decision.
Following the initial Governors meetings I decided to get up to speed by meeting with Mr Aziz (CX of DDC) and Mr Ingleton (Forward Planning Officer, DDC). This I was told, by the EKHUFT I was not allowed to do, that all such meetings were to be carried out by Officers and, perhaps, an appointed Governor, who would feedback to the main Governorship. So I made an appointment to see Mr Aziz and Mr Ingleton - which was very informative. By this time, I was aware that outline planning permission had NOT been sought by the EKHUFT for the proposed Health Facility. I say proposed, for at a subsequent meeting with the CX and Chairman of the Executive of the EKHUFT, it was apparent that we were to get option 3 above. Also that this would be based on the recommendations of the 2006 Dover Project, which 400+ people from Dover had approved! We were back to square one!
On leaving that meeting I was asked to write out why the people of Dover were objecting to such a wonderful facility that could cost up to £20m? My written reply was contained and was approved by those members of our community I sent it to, in essence, we have every reason not to trust the Trust!
The following ten days I was in turmoil ... did I carry on knowing that the role of the Governor was not checks and balances, as I had assumed, but as rubber stamp? All the Executive decisions would be taken at closed meetings with only one Governor attending to listen, with the conclusions being presented to the Governors, at an open meeting that the public could attend, to be ratified! Once the decision had been ratified, under collective responsibility the decision HAD it be accepted by all regardless of how strong an individual Governor may oppose the decision. Finally, if the controversial decision was to do with a specific Governors area, the elected Governor was obliged to publicly go along with that decision. In other words, with regards to the proposed Health Facility, I would be wheeled out like a ventriloquist dummy saying, "I whole heatedly agree that this is the best for Dover!" Further, if there was any physical reaction against me and mine following the publication of such statements, the EKHUFT did NOT have a duty of care!!!
We were given forms to sign to this effect - not gagging documents we were told, just documents to protect the interest of the EKHUFT. It was suggested to me, my some local stalwarts, that I should sign as at least I could be the 'eyes and ears' for Dover.
The final meeting, as far as I was concerned, was on Friday 24 April and was designed to last all day. The gagging orders were to be signed in the afternoon and I had previously asked, by e-mail, for a caveat to be inserted with regards to total disagreement of a decision by an elected Governor with regards to an area they represented - so that they could give their opposing view. This was totally defeated - my primary responsibility, I was told - was to the EKHUFT not to the people I represented ...
Since this saga has been published on the Dover Forum both the Dover Express and Dover Mercury have published my letter of mine on the subject and ... officers of both the PCT and the EKHUFT have logged into the Dover Forum. I hope that they have learnt that the hospital issue is not only a major concern to me but to the people Dover who now have the ammunition to fight for what is rightfully ours!!!
Lorraine
