For who we are and what you can to help, please go to the post linked below.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/pinned-post-who-we-are-and-what-you-can.html
You can sign our Petition here.
More information about why we are campaigning is here.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/how-wrong-does-something-have-to-be.html
Showing posts with label lancashire care NHS foundation trust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lancashire care NHS foundation trust. Show all posts
Friday, 30 January 2015
Friday, 28 November 2014
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:
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.
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.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.
Monday, 24 November 2014
Is Everything in Crisis?
Twitter has been full of tweets under #crisisteamfail. Turns out that the hashtag was started by someone under the care of Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Someone, it turns out, who has children who is being treated 90 mins from her home as there's no beds in The Orchard for women. Someone who is experiencing first hand the problems with being so far away from home. Little contact with their family, no one to come and visit and all the rest. All of the things that the Trust deny are a problem.
Someone who started #crisisteamfail because of her experiences of Home Treatment at the hands of the LCFT, the care, that we're told by the Trust is so much better for us women. As @orchardbeds chatted with this woman another tweep joined in and low and behold, turns out it's the same Crisis team as the other two.
There's no saying that the whole of the Crisis team in North Lancashire isn't up to par and some names have come out as providing really good care, but there's certainly enough examples of problems to make us sit up and take notice.
They all had experience of poor treatment at the hands of the teams that's meant to care for you when you're at your worst. And that's what the women of North Lancashire are left with.
Miles away from home if you need inpatient care and a crisis team that spawned a #crisisteamfail hashtag.
Fingers crossed you don't get ill ladies!
Someone, it turns out, who has children who is being treated 90 mins from her home as there's no beds in The Orchard for women. Someone who is experiencing first hand the problems with being so far away from home. Little contact with their family, no one to come and visit and all the rest. All of the things that the Trust deny are a problem.
Someone who started #crisisteamfail because of her experiences of Home Treatment at the hands of the LCFT, the care, that we're told by the Trust is so much better for us women. As @orchardbeds chatted with this woman another tweep joined in and low and behold, turns out it's the same Crisis team as the other two.
There's no saying that the whole of the Crisis team in North Lancashire isn't up to par and some names have come out as providing really good care, but there's certainly enough examples of problems to make us sit up and take notice.
They all had experience of poor treatment at the hands of the teams that's meant to care for you when you're at your worst. And that's what the women of North Lancashire are left with.
Miles away from home if you need inpatient care and a crisis team that spawned a #crisisteamfail hashtag.
Fingers crossed you don't get ill ladies!
Saturday, 22 November 2014
Communications with Lancashire Care Trust,
My name is Philippa and I'm the spokesperson for the Beds in the Orchard campaign. I believe I'm referred to by some of our other campaigners as one of the "Suited and Booted". My role has been to liaise with the Trust, the press and other groups interested in supporting us.
This week I've had two communications from the Trust.
Firstly, I have had confirmation that our FOI requests are being collated and should be with us at the start of next week. The plan is that I will then meet with the trust along with two other campaigners. I will publish the details when I have them.
The second communication is one from Keith Dibble, the Interim Deputy Network Director for Inpatient CBU in response to a letter of complaint.
The contents of that letter are broadly along the same lines as their communications with our MPs and in his radio interview at the start of November where the specific issues are not addressed, however this is to be expected. I will not be transcribing the letter onto the blog as it does not contain any new information and we have already made our position clear in previous posts as to why we are unsatisfied with the response so far.
I am more than happy to provide a scanned electronic copy of the letter to anyone who wishes to see it in full.
In the interim period between my original email to the Trust, my colleague and I have been taking advice in a number of areas with regards to this change and how it was made, however we have decided to suspend taking forward these more formal routes of action until after the meeting with the Trust has taken place.
After discussion with campaigners, however, we will be pressing ahead with organising direct action, and promoting the petition, particularly now that we have the backing of LUSU.
The information the campaign was given in regards to the original intentions of the Trust came from their management level. I remain inclined to believe the words of those who have much to loose and little to gain from sharing that information, rather than generalised statements from an organisation that is unwilling to address specific issues.
I will report back via the blog after our meeting has taken place.
Philippa
This week I've had two communications from the Trust.
Firstly, I have had confirmation that our FOI requests are being collated and should be with us at the start of next week. The plan is that I will then meet with the trust along with two other campaigners. I will publish the details when I have them.
The second communication is one from Keith Dibble, the Interim Deputy Network Director for Inpatient CBU in response to a letter of complaint.
The contents of that letter are broadly along the same lines as their communications with our MPs and in his radio interview at the start of November where the specific issues are not addressed, however this is to be expected. I will not be transcribing the letter onto the blog as it does not contain any new information and we have already made our position clear in previous posts as to why we are unsatisfied with the response so far.
I am more than happy to provide a scanned electronic copy of the letter to anyone who wishes to see it in full.
In the interim period between my original email to the Trust, my colleague and I have been taking advice in a number of areas with regards to this change and how it was made, however we have decided to suspend taking forward these more formal routes of action until after the meeting with the Trust has taken place.
After discussion with campaigners, however, we will be pressing ahead with organising direct action, and promoting the petition, particularly now that we have the backing of LUSU.
The information the campaign was given in regards to the original intentions of the Trust came from their management level. I remain inclined to believe the words of those who have much to loose and little to gain from sharing that information, rather than generalised statements from an organisation that is unwilling to address specific issues.
I will report back via the blog after our meeting has taken place.
Philippa
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
A big "Thanks" to Eric Ollerenshaw and a "Thanks for Nothing to the Trust"
Our other lovely MP Eric Ollerenshaw has got back to us as well as David Morris MP.
Both of them have had the same utterly disingenuous statement from from the LCFT.
This is the statement that:-
Doesn't mention that they've never removed inpatient care for women in this area before.
Doesn't mention the closure of male beds elsewhere in the county before they closed The Orchard to women.
Talks about seasonal fluctuations, with the insinuation that closing a whole ward to one sex is a common event, or that they would do the same to men in spring - which they have never done before either.
This casual sexism, misleading by omission and dismissal of concerns raised by the Service Users they are meant to support needs to stop.
Both of them have had the same utterly disingenuous statement from from the LCFT.
This is the statement that:-
Doesn't mention that they've never removed inpatient care for women in this area before.
Doesn't mention the closure of male beds elsewhere in the county before they closed The Orchard to women.
Talks about seasonal fluctuations, with the insinuation that closing a whole ward to one sex is a common event, or that they would do the same to men in spring - which they have never done before either.
This casual sexism, misleading by omission and dismissal of concerns raised by the Service Users they are meant to support needs to stop.
Saturday, 15 November 2014
The East Anglia Outrage - When will PEOPLE start to matter again?
This morning, we're stepping our of our area and we're going to take a look to the other end of the country from the North West and the absolutely appalling situation in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Colchester Hospital declares a major incident and it makes headline news. 50 mental health patients are sent out of area in a week and it's only worthy of local news.
There are two article of interest on the BBC website on this story,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30058920
Jeremy Hunt is quoted in the above article:- "In June Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised the "unacceptable" distances Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) patients had to travel for beds.
And yet, the DoH push ahead in their demand that the Trust cuts its budget by 40million.
Listen to the story from one of the Service users who was sent away from her home also quoted from the above article.
"No bed could be found in Norfolk and Suffolk, so a bed was found for her at a hospital in Nottingham. She said: "A private ambulance came at 10 o'clock at night to drive me to the hospital. My friends could not come and see me (because of the distance). My husband could not come and see me. "In the end I discharged myself. I did not want to be so far away from home. "It made my recovery slower. It was detrimental to my health and my husband's."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29936392
Their campaign group and their service users say the same as ours. That the cuts and the closure of beds is having a devastating effect on the people who need those services.
We know that feeling. We know that it is devastating and harmful.
We MUST stop dismissing these issues as too "local". Until we take a joined up look at what is happening to mental health services across the country, people will continue to be harmed.
The cuts to Mental Health funding and the closure of psychiatric beds is endemic across the UK and hurting people with mental illness everywhere. It has to change.
Colchester Hospital declares a major incident and it makes headline news. 50 mental health patients are sent out of area in a week and it's only worthy of local news.
There are two article of interest on the BBC website on this story,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30058920
Jeremy Hunt is quoted in the above article:- "In June Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised the "unacceptable" distances Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) patients had to travel for beds.
And yet, the DoH push ahead in their demand that the Trust cuts its budget by 40million.
Listen to the story from one of the Service users who was sent away from her home also quoted from the above article.
"No bed could be found in Norfolk and Suffolk, so a bed was found for her at a hospital in Nottingham. She said: "A private ambulance came at 10 o'clock at night to drive me to the hospital. My friends could not come and see me (because of the distance). My husband could not come and see me. "In the end I discharged myself. I did not want to be so far away from home. "It made my recovery slower. It was detrimental to my health and my husband's."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29936392
Their campaign group and their service users say the same as ours. That the cuts and the closure of beds is having a devastating effect on the people who need those services.
We know that feeling. We know that it is devastating and harmful.
We MUST stop dismissing these issues as too "local". Until we take a joined up look at what is happening to mental health services across the country, people will continue to be harmed.
The cuts to Mental Health funding and the closure of psychiatric beds is endemic across the UK and hurting people with mental illness everywhere. It has to change.
Saturday, 8 November 2014
How wrong does something have to be before they CHANGE it?
This is a quick summary of the main points made in this blog with links to the relevant posts.
In his interview with BBC Radio Lancashire, Keith Dibble, Deputy Network Director of LCFT was asked "Do you accept that moving these women further away from their families and children could be damaging?" He replied "We believe not".
Well we are telling you that it is damaging, Keith. We believe removing all local inpatient care for the women of Lancaster and the surrounding area is wrong and damaging because...
It discriminates against women.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-equality-act-2010-how-is-this-not.html
It punishes women and families on low incomes.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/closing-female-beds-punishes-women-and.html
It can lead to increased detentions under the Mental Health Act.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/can-closure-of-female-inpatient.html
It deters women from seeking, or accepting help.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/is-based-on-need-self-fulfilling.html
It affects families and children.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/away-from-family-and-early-release.html
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/so-i-asked-my-children-what-was-it-like.html
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/clares-story-near-miss-distressed.html
It damages women by isolating them from their support networks.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-full-article-published-today-on.html
And lets not forget that even some LCFT Staff agree with us.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/views-of-worker-in-lancashire-care-nhs.html
How wrong does something have to be before Lancashire Care NHS Trust will change it?
In his interview with BBC Radio Lancashire, Keith Dibble, Deputy Network Director of LCFT was asked "Do you accept that moving these women further away from their families and children could be damaging?" He replied "We believe not".
Well we are telling you that it is damaging, Keith. We believe removing all local inpatient care for the women of Lancaster and the surrounding area is wrong and damaging because...
It discriminates against women.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-equality-act-2010-how-is-this-not.html
It punishes women and families on low incomes.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/closing-female-beds-punishes-women-and.html
It can lead to increased detentions under the Mental Health Act.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/can-closure-of-female-inpatient.html
It deters women from seeking, or accepting help.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/is-based-on-need-self-fulfilling.html
It affects families and children.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/away-from-family-and-early-release.html
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/so-i-asked-my-children-what-was-it-like.html
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/clares-story-near-miss-distressed.html
It damages women by isolating them from their support networks.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-full-article-published-today-on.html
And lets not forget that even some LCFT Staff agree with us.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/views-of-worker-in-lancashire-care-nhs.html
How wrong does something have to be before Lancashire Care NHS Trust will change it?
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