Haematology unit

1300 signatures on High Row in two hours, just two hours this is fantastic, the people of Darlington paid for the Haematology Unit it should remain at DMH.

We have written to the Echo on this matter, it provoked a reply from John Saxby himself (letters below), urged on by staff we have written again we hope it will be published but if not it is here.


HAEMATOLOGY UNIT (24/02/07)

ONCE again, MP Alan Milburn needs prompting to speak up for the people of Darlington. Is he more concerned with making money outside of politics?

He earns £60,000 - plus expenses and pension - as an MP.

According to The Londoner's Diary column of the Evening Standard newspaper, he also raked in up to £95,000 through non-parliamentary work over the past 12 months, plus £25,000 from writing newspaper articles.

The column said he had recently set up a company, called AM Strategy Limited, for the purposes of his "media/consultancy work", and one of his biggest money-spinners, generating £25,000 to £30,000 a year, came through sitting on the Lloyds Pharmacy Healthcare Advisory Panel.

We, as a town, face more closures at the Memorial Hospital (the inpatient haematology unit). The Conservative group leader speaks out, but where are the New Labour voices?

What of the council leader? Where is his leadership, or is it that Bishop Auckland General Hospital being a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) has to be filled at all costs and New Labour has told its councillors to keep quiet on contentious issues?

Is our hospital to close ward by ward until it is no longer viable, the land being sold to developers? - David Davies, Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton, Conservative Candidates, Pierremont Ward, Darlington.



MEMORIAL HOSPITAL (05/03/07)

THE letter from David and Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton (HAS, Page 10, Feb 24) questions the future of Darlington Memorial Hospital (DMH).

Over the past several years, the clinical position of DMH has been strengthened.
Orthopaedic trauma surgery for the south of County Durham and Darlington was centralised at DMH in 1999.

Following the Darzi report into services in County Durham and Darlington, consultant-led obstetric services, gynaecology services, as well as emergency and major elective surgery, have also been centralised for the town and the rest of South Durham at DMH.

Centralisation of these services was clinically-driven and was designed to ensure these vital services remained in the south of County Durham and Darlington.

Our plans to centralise inpatient haematology services at Bishop Auckland are also clinically-driven, and are a relatively small move in the opposite direction.

Importantly, 95 per cent of all haematology services are provided on an outpatient, or day-case basis, and those services remain at Darlington.

To suggest the future of DMH is under threat because of such a move is nonsense. Could I ask those people who feel it necessary to make such assertions to contact me so I can acquaint them with the facts. - John Saxby, chief executive, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Rats and Sinking Ships!! (Yet to be published, at time of blog posting)

We refer to John Saxby’s letter of 5th March. Our reply has been driven by the many people who have come to speak to us about this issue since our original letter, including many staff from Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Many Darlington residents perceive the closure of wards of our hospital as very negative and staff morale at DMH seems very low. We appreciate that emotions in Bishop Auckland are also running high on this issue but our main concern has to be the DMH.

Mr Saxby says that these decisions are clinically driven. We believe that the people of Darlington and those who raised the funds to secure the in-patient haematology unit deserve an NHS that is driven by the demands of its patients.

We, and we suspect many Darlington residents, are not reassured by the platitudes of a man who is leaving to take up a post elsewhere. We sincerely hope that Mr Saxby’s replacement has much greater empathy with their staff and patients and realises how important our hospital is to many in their greatest hour of need.

David Davies, Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton
Conservative Candidates for Pierremont Ward