Communication with the Trust

A week after we launched this campaign, we were invited by the Trust to meet with them in person to discuss the closure.  We advised that we would meet once we had the responses from our Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Trust have kindly pushed through the responses to those requests, which would normally take up to 20 days.  We appreciate their swift response.

Now we have that information, we have contacted the Trust to arrange that meeting as below:

Dear Communications Team,

Now that we have the responses to our Freedom of Information requests, we would like to meet with you on behalf of the campaign to discuss the closure of The Orchard to women in more detail.

We are able to meet with you on Monday afternoon.  The earliest we could attend would be 1:30pm.

I will be attending along with ****.  I may also still bring my assistant to take notes on my behalf, but I can't confirm this as yet as she may be required to minute another meeting at work.

Please can you advise whether Monday afternoon would also be convenient for you and who will be attending the meeting on your behalf.

I look forward to hearing from you.

S's Story - Moving female patients out of town is at best ludicrous, at worst, dangerous.

As our campaign gains wider attention, we are being contacted by more local service users who were not aware of the changes or the campaign to reverse the decision.  One of those service users "S" shares her fears and concerns about this change.

This is more first hand knowledge and experience of how the changes impact on service users and their families.

Dear Beds in the Orchard,

Hope this helps/makes sense as I struggle to write when unwell.

Suggestions that moving female inpatients out of town is not damaging to patients is, at best, ludicrous and at worst dangerous.

I personally know from my struggles with bipolar II, that I can rarely attend meetings with my CPN without the support of my partner and son. They are central to my recovery. If I was shipped out of town there is no way we would have time or means to keep up contact - potentially breaking bonds with my son, that I have fought so hard to rebuild since my PND, PTSD and psychotic episode on the postnatal ward after staff saw fit to (guess what) move me! All against the advice of the MH professionals...

In spite of the rise of stay at home dads and many families successfully co-parenting; my personal experience suggests that in the majority, women run their homes, make decisions regarding children and are better placed to arrange their child's day to day activities - even those women with difficult mental health issues.

For many patients gaining control in a positive way helps their recovery - taking away this option will greatly hinder recovery, increase stress and in turn extend stays in hospital.

This should be about what is best for the patient. If I were to be moved out of town because the help and care I would recieve would be greater then of course I would consider it short term, when I'm at my very worst BUT that isn't happening here and even in the above hypothetical situation I still would need to be moved closer to home as my mental state improved in order to become stable.

For people who struggle with change and need consistency this cruel decision needs looking at again.

Orchard Beds Goes National in The New Statesman

Beds in the Orchard started out as a small campaign to stand up for the women of North Lancashire after all the inpatient beds in the The Orchard psychiatric unit were closed to women and it became a male only ward.

We have documented all the way through our blog about why this is so harmful to the women of our area and why, even though the Trust has now said it's temporary, it should never have happened in the first place.

We were thrilled when our cause was taken up by the brilliant folks at BBC Radio Lancashire, but it seems that our issue has touched a more national nerve and today our campaign has been publicised in The New Statesman.

http://www.newstatesman.com/health/2014/11/orchard-psychiatric-ward-closure-women-bear-cost-unchecked-male-dominance

Everyone at Beds In the Orchard would like to pass on their grateful thanks to everyone who has supported us.  The women of North Lancashire deserve to be heard.  A special thanks to Tim Padfield and Graham Liver at BBC Radio Lancashire and Glosswitch at The New Statesman for making our voice a loud one.

Beds In The Orchard, Trying to change things for the better.

At the moment, I'm listening to the Lancashire Care NHS Trust's spokesperson on BBC Lancashire Radio this morning, going through all of his points so I can fashion a response.

But I'm going to take a moment to share a quote with our readers.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful individuals can change the world.  Indeed, its the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, US Anthropologist

That's us.  A small group of individuals just trying to make things better for vulnerable women in North Lancashire.  Here's to succeeding. 

For those of you who don't twitter - Our take on the response from Lancashire Care

The Beds in the Orchard Campaign received its first official response from the Trust this afternoon via our Twitter account @OrchardBeds from @LancashireCare.

Here's what they had to say and, of course, our response.

@OrchardBeds The decision to operate male only beds at The Orchard is a temporary measure and is under constant review. (1/5)

We can't argue about whether or not this is true as we only have this statement from the Trust about it.  However; we do know that some Trust staff have been advised The Orchard may revert back to mixed provision once The Harbour opens in March 2015, suggesting that it is not under constant review as the decision has already been made.  We are open to concede there may have been a communication problem if staff have not been informed about it remaining male only until the opening of The Harbour.

Regardless of whether this is temporary or not, it is impacting women and families now.  It is hurting female service users now and there remains no clinical benefit to women from the closure.

@OrchardBeds There is a peak in demand for male beds & a reduction in demand for female beds - we have empty female beds at present. (2/5)

Two responses here.  Firstly, it is likely that the peak in demand for male beds is linked to the trust closing a 15 bed male ward in Burnley and it is rather disingenuous to cite demand for male beds being the driving factor after closing 15 of them.

Secondly, the point about empty female beds is slightly misleading.  The status of beds can change on an hourly basis.  From personal experience a bed can be taken in the time it takes to have a consultation with your psychiatrist about whether you should go into hospital or not.  A freedom of information request has already been submitted to the trust about how many women they've sent out of area in the last 4 years, often to private hospitals that should clarify demand.

We also directed them to this post - http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/is-based-on-need-self-fulfilling.html

This isn't about empty beds.  Its about denying a whole group of service users access to local inpatient care solely based on their sex.

@OrchardBeds All Trust facilities have the ability to flex male/female beds in line with demand. (3/5)

This is indeed True.  The Orchard had two 'swing' beds that could change between male and female.  There were 10 fixed male beds and 6 fixed female beds.  Up until recently, the two swing beds were female.  The trust could have swung those beds to male, giving them 12 male and 6 female beds at The Orchard. Instead they decided to deny access to a whole group of service users from a wide area. 

It is rather disappointing that the Trust sees removing access to local inpatient care to all women in the Lancaster area as 'flexing'.

@OrchardBeds The Orchard will revert to mixed sex as soon as this is clinically appropriate. (4/5)

There's nothing we can really say about this other than, how is it clinically appropriate to deny women access to local inpatient care.  No, seriously.  Our twitter handler has replied that we will be happy to discuss this with someone qualified to explain the clinical benefits to women of sending them out of the area for treatment.

 @OrchardBeds We would be happy to discuss this further with you and you can contact us on communications@lancashirecare.nhs.uk (5/5)

One of our team had already emailed the complaints department with the letter we published here

http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/not-sure-what-to-write-when-you-complain.html

We will publish their response as soon as they receive it.