4.1 Cllr Dacres introduced Kathy Cruise from Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign.
4.2 Kathy is a nurse at Lewisham Hospital and an active member of the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign which started in 2012. Lewisham Council helped the campaign defeat Hunt’s plans twice, helping with legal fees to take the challenge to the High Court.
4.3 Despite this services are still not safe and there is a national march on 4th March starting at Tavistock Square. Katy urged people to join in and support the NHS.
4.4 Part of the role of The Campaign is on-going vigilance regarding budgets. The Service needs an increase of about 4% per year to maintain current levels of service and the current government are increasing budgets by about 1% per year. This is leading to pressures such as the bed shortage that is currently hitting the headlines.
4.5 For example, Croydon Hospital is currently running at 99% beds full and hospitals usually run at 85% occupancy to allow for effective management of patients. This is very dangerous and there are special teams in each hospital trying to get beds emptied.
4.6. The compound effect of the cuts is that there will be a £20 billion shortfall by 2020 and the effect is further compounded by the cuts in district nursing and social services, despite government policy advocating referral to this provision.
Q. How far is PFI part of the problem?
A. It is a big part of it.
Q. What could be done, could they be bought out?
A. It could be or the companies could reduce the debt. The problem is that there is no ombudsman like you have for mis-sold mortgages.
Q. Could there be extra taxation ring fenced to help fund health?
A. Yes that is a good point but also the government should also ensure that big businesses pay their taxes.
There was a discussion on higher earnings tax payer who chose to opt out and have private healthcare, they are not using the NHS, however the private sector does not undertake training or invest in their staff and therefore acts as a drain on the NHS resources.
4.7 Privatisation is going on at rapid pace and means that we may end up with a two-tier system where you have to pay insurance as well.
4.8 The current Sustainability and Transformation Plan outlines a £1 billion cut in services for South East London. There are 44 areas and one is South East London which covers the six boroughs (Lewisham, Lambeth, Greenwich, Southwark, Bromley & Bexley) run by Our Healthier South East London.
4.9 This means that there will be £1 billion cut in the next 5 years which will mean the loss of a hospital.
Comment: This does not take into consideration the level of population growth.
4.10 The next two public meetings are on 22nd February and 22nd March at Waldron Health Centre from 7.30pm.
4.11 Cllr Dacres added that it is not winter crisis it is the winter norm. In addition bursaries have been cut for nursing training and there have been cut in training for ambulance staff. Many people also work in the private health sector to supplement their income.
4.12 Cllr Dacres asked people to pass on details of the march to others as it is important to have a good turn-out.
4.14 Cllr Dacres thanked Kathy for coming and introduced Laura Wirtz who is leading on the campaign to stop the closure of the Post Office at New Cross Gate.
4.15 Laura passed out the petition for people to sign if they had not done so.
4.16 Laura explained that this campaign started about two weeks ago. The National Director are looking to close 37 Crown Post Offices. There is not much information at the point but we are pushing for more including the national plan.
4.17 Had a good turn-out at the first demo on Saturday. There will be more activities over the coming months.
4.18 The Post Office are looking for a franchisee to run it. This usually involves moving the service to an existing shop. There will be no closures for 18 months.
4.19 Cllr Dacres wrote to Paula Vennels, the CEO of the Post Office. The reply was a stock answer but they are arranging for a Senior Director to come to a meeting so that they can see what the area is like. Laura will be invited to this meeting as will representative from the CSU. Other member of the community can also attend so that they can see how important it is.
4.20 Laura explained that this was a many pronged campaign working with the staff and CSU.
Q What do you know about what might be the agenda for the site?
A. This has not been said although the plan is just for the post office itself and not the sorting office.
4.21 Cllr Dacres added that the sorting office staff are worried however.
4.22 Cllr Dacres added that Corals have taken over the Barclays Bank building. Cllr Dacres and Shereener Browne campaigned to try to stop this.
4.23 An appeal was put into the planning inspectorate two weeks ago. Coral went through the motion of being at the meeting and, had they had the information, it would have been passed, but it is with the planning inspectorate
Q. Are they closing the existing shop, it is only two minutes around the corner?
A. They will give up their licence but it could be sub-let to another bookmakers.
4.24 Please sign-up for e-mail updates on the list going around.