‘Grassroots campaigning at its best’

Five years on from a remarkable community campaign that saved Lewisham Hospital in southeast London, another grassroots campaign is piling on the pressure to preserve their local NHS services and save lives.

The Defend Dorset NHS campaign group formed two years ago, when Dorset CCG first put forward proposals that would see the closure of Poole A&E and maternity departments, as well as the loss of beds at community hospitals in Wareham, Portland, Weymouth, Poole and Ferndown. It has since emerged that two out of three Poole Hospital beds will also be closed.

For the people of Dorset – a part of the country where public transport is limited and distances between local towns can stretch for dozens of miles – the proposals would be devastating.

“Closing Poole A&E and maternity departments would mean critically longer journey times to Bournemouth or Dorchester for tens of thousands of residents and over a million visitors,” explained Debby Monkhouse, a Defend Dorset NHS campaigner. “Premature babies, mothers in labour, and patients with conditions that can’t be treated in ambulances – where minutes mean the difference between life and death – these are the people who are most vulnerable and whose lives are being put at risk.”

The campaign group’s detailed research estimates that around 500 patients’ lives each year would be imperilled under Dorset CCG’s plans, and about two-thirds of the population in the area would find it more difficult to access emergency maternity services.

Activists from across Dorset have tirelessly campaigned against the proposals and used every avenue at their disposal to stop the closures, with support from Unite Community branches, local Labour branches, and other activists along the way. And now their work has led them to the Royal Courts of Justice – the same place that five years ago saw Lewisham A&E saved.

Judicial review

A two-day judicial review hearing was held last week (July 17-18) at the High Court, where barristers put forward their arguments for and against the CCG’s plans. Unite Community members joined the campaigners and other health activists at a demo outside the court on the first day of the hearing, alongside Labour MP Eleanor Smith.

The Defend Dorset NHS campaign group is legally challenging the CCG’s reorganisation on several grounds. Campaigners argue that the CCG is failing in its duty of care to patients by closing so many beds without having staff in place for replacement community services, which, it is claimed, will reduce demand for beds. They are also failing patients by creating longer, unsafe journey times to A&E and maternity services. Campaigners moreover argue that parts of the consultation over the closure plans were so misleading as to be considered unlawful.

The result from this week’s hearing is expected in early September, and Debby — whose involvement in the campaign is in part inspired by her own struggles with life-long respiratory problems – says the group is “cautiously optimistic.”

“In the meantime we will fight on,” she told UNITElive, as she explained the continued lobbying the campaign group is taking on to press Dorset health scrutiny committee, made up of local councillors, to refer the plans to the Secretary of State for Independent Review.

Debby highlighted the importance of community campaigning and noted that until there’s a change in government, it is only through community action that the dismantling of the NHS can be stopped.

“We’ve worked very hard to raise the media profile of our fight, to get local councillors on board and to build a coalition of support,” she said. “Sometimes it can be a struggle informing people about such important issues but when you talk about mums in labour, about what the NHS means to them – people understand these things. And when you get enough people who believe in something, you can get people to stand together — and that’s a powerful force.”

Unite south west regional Community coordinator Brett Sparkes hailed the Defend Dorset NHS campaign.

“This is grassroots community campaigning at its very best,” he said. “These plans will put lives at risk and the community has, quite rightly, decided that they are not going to stand back and let it happen.

“The NHS is under threat by the actions of the Conservative government like never before in its 70 year history and local people are having to fight to protect it,” he added. “We are going to see more campaigns like this one where ordinary people will do what is best for their communities not private healthcare company’s profits.”
 

Find out more about the Defend Dorset NHS campaign on their Facebook page here.