Sunday 9 March 2008

At No 4 welcome back to an issue that has been missing for a long time.

Health care.
Sandwell PCT has recognised publicly that we need a Clinic in Newton or Great Barr with a satellite facility in the other ward. Although they have said this and given a written commitment to start in March 2009 the project has slipped to an unknown now start date. This slippage occurred without consultation with local residents and only became public by concerned residents pressing to know where the site was going to be. In Newton we have lost a doctor’s surgery and despite the PCT giving a commitment to replace this doctor, it is now not going to happen. Martyn Smith was a dedicated councillor who always monitored closely what was happening on the health agenda and published in Focus his concerns or plans where appropriate. A new hospital is being built in Smethwick which was opposed by many people in our ward. The plan was to have local clinics established and community hospitals in place before moves to the new acute hospital. Recent neighbourhood meetings have expressed concerns over the delay to our clinic. The only local councillor that I know who has supported this and the doctor campaign was Dave Hosell, as far as I know the others have ignored it. This is another example of where our community needs strong leadership. We need to see our candidates campaigning strongly to get the local project back on track, to raise the profile of our lost doctor and to make sure the community hospital and acute hospitals are built on time and our community has a strong voice in the project throughout. We need regular independent updates on the projects. These are the most important health care developments in over 60yrs our local politicians need to be seen fighting the Newton corner. Newton needs to be flexing it’s muscles because unless we do we are going to be moved to the back of the health provision queue. One of the criteria used when making these decisions is public opinion. So let’s hear it for NEWTON.
WE WANT OUR CLINIC, WE WANT OUR CLINIC, WE WANT OUR CLINIC

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob This issue is and allways will be one of our main targets and will remain so untill we get a satisfactory solution.I would like to add to this statement by stating that our new candidate also supports newton wards demands for a clinic more doctors and also care workers to ensure the well being of our area. ps keep the blog going shirley and i will be monitoring it.yours Dave Hosell

Bob the Black Country Brummie said...

Thank you David, good to hear we have the support of a councillor and candidate