A protest

[saundra]

I'm just going to a protest meeting
I might not be back I could be locked up
There a proposal to close our Mc millian ward at or hospital
Plus our minor injuries unit and the bus to go to Scarborough hospital
We will be left with nothing only a half empty hospital
A 20 mile j ourney to Scarborough and it's our nearest a e
By for now

[meriad]

good luck!

[JoM]

Really hope that the protest can make a difference Saundra!

Shall we send cake with a file in it?

[saundra]

I never got locked up
Quite a few protest forms to sign
And future protest meetings to organize of course nobody from nhs there or a pm representative
Think it had been well attended time will tell
Got a free cuppa tho
It's a very worrying situation

[Kaz]

That really is terrible Saundra

Don't worry we'll all campaign: "Free the Bridlington One!!!"

[JoM]

Glad to see you've not been banged up Saundra.

The public usually get behind anything like this, I know that when it was proposed that Stafford hospital should lose a lot of services there was a march through the town as well as public meetings and a petition that thousands signed. Unfortunately it didn't do any good but at least people rallied together and tried.

[TheOstrich]

The public usually get behind anything like this, I know that when it was proposed that Stafford hospital should lose a lot of services there was a march through the town as well as public meetings and a petition that thousands signed. Unfortunately it didn't do any good .....

And that, unfortunately, is the problem - you can never win against the bureaucrats. In fact the Stafford campaign started as a protest movement over all the deaths there, didn't it, Jo, then the authorities threatened closure and it turned nasty, and the lady who started it all was hounded out of her café in the town. And it didn't stop the closures, with maternity services for one going to either Wolverhampton or Stoke-on-Trent Hospitals, IIRC.

Locally, there is a move to close the "cottage" hospital at Shaftesbury, Saundra. Petitions and meetings already under way, but I fear that it will go the same way as Bridlington and many others. Our nearest hospitals will then be Salisbury, Bournemouth, Dorchester or Yeovil, each over 25 miles away, and you may get sent to any of these from what I can tell. One of our new neighbours needs a stent operation; her pre-op appointments were all Salisbury, the operation is at Bournemouth ...... and there aren't any viable buses from here to any of those.

Love the "Free the Bridlington One" campaign, Kaz ......

[saundra]

When we moved here 10years ago next week I made sure there was a hospital
Since then they closed the maternity stroke unit and heart unit
All went to Scarborough 22mile away now they say alot of departments are going to York
It's a nightmare ossie yours sounds the same
Don't hold any hope out for us here

[TheOstrich]

When we moved here 10years ago next week I made sure there was a hospital

Interestingly, when we came here, one of my pals emailed me and his first reaction to our move was "why so far from an A&E?" I must confess, we hadn't given it any thought.

However, we have since learnt that the Somerset & Dorset Air Ambulance uses the meadow just across the river from us for flights in and out of the area, so perhaps all is not lost ....

[JoM]

Not just maternity Os, I believe that paediatrics went to Stoke too. A&E is still closed overnight (9pm-8am) too although that was just supposed to be a temporary measure for a couple of months three or four years ago, maybe longer I can't remember. Stoke in particular is a pain in the backside to get to.

Tom had to go to A&E last year, we got him there before it closed. There was no one else waiting and it took well over an hour for him to be seen initially because apparently they were rushed off their feet. Around 11pm a doctor decided that he needed bloods to be taken before he could go home despite him feeling much better by then so that was eventually done and then the samples had to be taken by road to Stoke to be analysed, results were inconclusive when they finally came back at 6am and then he was allowed home.