Sally Allen warns Torbay Hospital heart campaign battle is “far from over”

Well, I am certainly not bewitched, but I am definitely bothered and bewildered. Susie Colley and I met with a representative of the Integrated Care Board last Friday, and it all started off very positively. 

We were told that the Heart Campaign had won its battle and that there were now no plans to move the Cardiac Department from Torbay Hospital to Exeter. Personally, I thought fantastic. 

Sadly, this became a fleeting emotion and one which turned to disbelief. The proposed 5-year Commissioning plan, which now includes cardiac care along with every other service our hospital offers, is still going to be under discussion and it is now clear that nothing has really changed.

The plan includes very worthy proposals to make us all much healthier in the future – well good luck with that. 

Have they forgotten the curved ball of human nature not ever doing exactly what is required to live a good clean life. No chips, no fried food, no fags, no drinking and much more beside of course. 

Added to this, Torbay has a shocking level of alcoholism amongst its residents if you look at national statistics. To endeavour to make us all healthy living bunnies is a wonderful objective, but it will take multiple generations for the penny to drop and meanwhile the services at our hospital will be dwindling, if not disappearing completely.

From some cloak and dagger investigating, Susie and I have found that already some of the services are drifting away to Exeter or Derriford. This is all taking place in a stealth like manner. The way that the NHS is run is abysmal and detrimental to all our health, whether we eat chips and enjoy a drink or not!

This attitude through the NHS system is compounded from a recent look under the bonnet of how the organisation operates. 

A couple of months ago I joined the NHS Trust to see how I could help and ideally make a difference. From being a member, I saw that I could put my name forward to be a Governor of the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, so I did. I told Susie, and said she should do the same, which she did. 

Imagine our surprise when we both found ourselves voted in by the public to become Governors. Since then, I have been hugely disappointed to find that the volunteer Governors actually can’t make decisions, we are only allowed to make suggestions. So not much chance of being able to make much of a difference for good under the stringent rules and code of conduct we have been handed. The layers of management make proper debate and interaction with the public, who actually pay their wages, virtually impossible.

As Governors, along with the public, we are all invited to the next Medicine for Members event held by the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust in TREC at the hospital at 5pm on April 28. This event was duly promoted on the Heart Campaign’s Facebook page to encourage the public to attend. 

Subsequently, Susie received the following from Chris Balch, the chairman of the Trust: “I understand that you have posted a proposal on Facebook to organise a Heart Campaign protest at the Medicine for Members meeting at Torbay Hospital planned for the evening of April 28. I am concerned that this is not compatible with your role as a Governor of the Trust in terms of the Governors Code of Conduct which you are required to sign. I would be grateful if we could meet face to face to discuss a way forward. Could you please get in touch with my PA, to arrange a meeting at the Trust offices?” 

So, even though a ‘protest’ had not been mentioned, we have both been summoned for a ticking-off by the sound of it! 

However, Mr Balch might need reminding of one of the Governors’ codes of conduct himself “12.2 Governors are reminded that the Council of Governors, Board of Directors and management have a common purpose: the success of the Trust and the provision of safe and high-quality care to the community.” Council of Governors: Code of Conduct for Governors, May 2024, Version 8.

So therein lies the rub. Everything should be able to stand-up to scrutiny, especially the way our health service is run. Nothing should be out of bounds to be discussed, improved upon or discarded. Public debate and interaction are vital to progress.

I feel so passionately about the workings of the NHS because like every one of you, we rely on the service to save our loved ones and our own lives. 

I have also been a carer to three loved ones in my life, my mother, my brother and now my husband. This is something I do with great love, and I have been fortunate to have the funds to be able to buy any equipment I have needed to help look after them. This is when I personally came across the vast amount of wastage in the NHS; money which if saved, could be used to fund treatment and nurses in hospital. 

I was shocked when one day a van arrived with every possible medical physical aid anyone would ever need. I told the delivery person that I didn’t need it, as I had already bought it all myself, and so please take it away for someone else who would need it. 

The policy apparently, is that nothing can be re-used, even if it has never been used, or in my case touched by human hand, other than the delivery driver! This is surely bonkers, why can’t equipment like Zimmer frames, crutches, perches, etc all be disinfected and used again?

All this emphasises the chronically bad system within the NHS and one of the reasons they are in such chronic difficulty. 

The other current dilemma is the Adult Social Care and Torbay Hospital £30m deficit. I see both sides to this particular argument, and there are clearly no winners. I would certainly like the hospital to save the money it puts into social care, but if that happens, beds will start to be blocked at the hospital. 

When my husband was taken into hospital last month with a bout of pneumonia, when we were leaving, I was asked if I wanted a package of care arranged, which fortunately I am in the lucky position to be able to decline. 

However, I know most people couldn’t go home without it. It is a Catch 22 and needs a Solomonic decision, but who is going to be responsible for cutting the baby in half? An impossible situation: but a halt on wastage could help.

The management system from the politicians down wouldn’t last a week in the private sector. I have always had to make my own money, mostly working 7-days a week to build-up my businesses. 

I promise you that you never squander money that is hard earned. It is the easiest thing in the world to inherit a budget and if you foul-up it gets swept under the carpet so that it doesn’t show you or others up. 

Civil servants can screw-up multi-million-pound budgets and still get rewarded with gongs and knighthoods, generally for gross incompetence. They go by the policy of never employing people who are really good as they will clearly show them up as not being very able, and so we continue with the shocking mediocrity in public life which is killing our country. 

In short, we cannot take our eye off the ball as we have merely won a skirmish, we have yet to engage in battle, and then we have to win the war. Cardiology maybe safe for the next few months, but there is zero guarantee that it will be available to our community in a few years unless we fight tooth and nail to keep it. We now also need to extend our fight to saving all the services at the hospital too.

Please come and show your support on Monday, 13th April at 5.30pm at The Grand Hotel and keep up-to-date via our website www.theheartcampaigntorbay.co.uk or on our Facebook page.

Never forget that ‘people power’ works and now we are literally fighting to SAVE THE HEART OF OUR COMMUNITY.