Agenda item

By Councillor Don Fisher:

“That this Council deplores reductions in the Health Services and requests the following:-

(1)     That there be no reduction in mental health service beds (said to be 8) moving from the Resources Centre at Stamford to Grantham. (This to the Peterborough and Stamford Hospital NHS Trust).

(2)     That at least one Chemist shop be open part time on Sundays for

prescriptions to be obtained locally.  (This to the Lincolnshire S.W.

         Primary Care Trust.)

(3)     That there be no reductions in the Carers Service in South Kesteven

         as a result of a review taking place at present.  (This to Lincolnshire

          S.W. Primary Care Trust.)”

By Councillor Fisher

DECISION:

(1)   That this Council deplores reductions in the Health Services and requests that the health scrutiny committee of the county council considers the following:

(a)   That there be no reduction in mental health service beds (said to be 8) moving from the Resources Centre at Stamford to Grantham and that the proposed cut in the provision of counselling and psychotherapy services (which currently has a valuable length of waiting list, depending on the size of establishment) be resisted and hours allocated for counselling be increased or at least remain unchanged.  (This to the Lincolnshire Mental Health Authority).

(b)  That at least one Chemist shop be open part time on Sundays for prescriptions to be obtained in Bourne and The Deepings. (This to the Lincolnshire S.W. Primary Care Trust).

(c)   That there be no reductions in the Carers Service in South Kesteven as a result of a review taking place at present. (This to Lincolnshire Social  Services).

(2)    A change has been proposed to drastically reduce the no of PCTs and to transform their role to commissioning of services rather than directly providing them, will further erode the provision of services at a local level and the accountability of trusts to local people.

Coupled with this, it is deplorable that the Secretary of State for Health has announced meeting financial targets must have the same priority as meeting key health targets.

It is clear that centrally-driven reforms are failing to take into account the specific issues faced by people in rural areas and this should be investigated.

Decisions about health priorities and the delivery of services should be fully integrated with local authorities. Current deliberations on the structure and role of local government provide a good opportunity to explore this.”

Therefore the Council should write to the Secretary of State expressing these views. 

Councillor Fisher proposed the following amended version to the motion he had submitted:     

That this Council deplores reductions in the Health Services and requests that the health scrutiny committee of the county council considers the following: 

1)     That there be no reduction in mental health service beds (said to be 8) moving from the Resources Centre at Stamford to Grantham. (This to the Lincolnshire Mental Health Authority).

2)     That at least one Chemist shop be open part time on Sundays for prescriptions to be obtained in Bourne and The Deepings. (This to the Lincolnshire S.W. Primary Care Trust).

3)     That there be no reductions in the Carers Service in South Kesteven as a result of a review taking place at present. (This to Lincolnshire Social  Services).

In proposing the motion, Councillor Fisher stated that although the Council’s motion may not be perceived to be making a difference, he insisted that it should be seen to be fighting for the community’s amenities, especially for health services; sometimes this did make a difference. He understood that all hospital sites would be preserved in future for health purposes, as a result of the Council. He considered the services in his motion were essential to the community.

The motion was seconded by Councillor Mrs Smith, who reserved her right to speak later in the meeting.

Many members expressed their support for the motion. One member, who was very glad that mental health issues had been raised at Council, reminded members of the Council’s Mental Health Services Working Group and pointed to an underlying principle in Councillor Fisher’s motion: that central government did not seem to understand the accessibility issues of services in rural areas, especially in relation to mental health services. In an interview on local radio, the member had been asked by a representative from the National Health Services to form a partnership with democratically elected representatives provided “we stop criticising them”. Members expressed their opposition to this. 

Councillor Bisnauthsing, after clarifying with the Monitoring Officer that he did not have a declarable interest in the subject matter, stated that he was very concerned about changes to mental health services. The government was pressurising Primary Care Trusts to cut services to alleviate accumulating deficits. He referred to Peterborough Hospital as an example. He explained that the mental health service in Stamford, which had already been subject to significant service cuts, was vital because it provided care for a wide range of mental health problems. 

He then proposed an amendment to point (1) of the motion: “That there be no reduction in mental health service beds (said to be 8) moving from the Resources Centre at Stamford to Grantham and that the proposed cut in the provision of counselling and psychotherapy services (which currently has a valuable length of waiting list, depending on the size of establishment) be resisted and hours allocated for counselling be increased or at least remain unchanged.  (This to the Lincolnshire Mental Health Authority).”

Councillor Fisher agreed to incorporate this in his motion and this was seconded.

Councillor Shorrock, whilst fully supporting the motion incorporating Councillor Bisnauthsing’s addition, proposed an amendment to this motion, that the following be added as point (4):

“A change has been proposed to drastically reduce the no of PCTs and to transform their role to commissioning of services rather than directly providing them, will further erode the provision of services at a local level and the accountability of trusts to local people.

Coupled with this, it is deplorable that the Secretary of State for Health has announced meeting financial targets must have the same priority as meeting key health targets.

It is clear that centrally-driven reforms are failing to take into account the specific issues faced by people in rural areas and this should be investigated.

Decisions about health priorities and the delivery of services should be fully integrated with local authorities. Current deliberations on the structure and role of local government provide a good opportunity to explore this.”

Therefore the Council should write to the Secretary of State expressing these views. 

This received a seconder.

Members spoke about the potential problems for the general community in reducing mental health care. It was suggested that there was a link here with some anti-social behaviour incidents. The need for a chemist on a Sunday was considered important, especially as Sunday trading was prevalent, and as the population of Bourne and the Deepings was growing. The need for united working in meeting the community’s needs was emphasised. 

In relation to the amendment, a member stated that human needs could not be given a price; the rurality of the district was not taken into account by the National Health Service; and that if a public service was not democratically accountable, it was not a public service. This needed to be entrenched in local government. 

Another member explained that he could not support the motion because he had only just heard it, he did not know enough about the statement and its appropriate place for full debate was at the appropriate Development and Scrutiny Panel (DSP).

The Healthy Environment Portfolio Holder gave his support to the motion and amendments. He hoped that any further ideas to progress talks with health authorities would continue, as they had been via the Healthy Environment DSP and himself.

In his summing up, Councillor Fisher thanked everyone for their support for his motion. The debate had shown that everyone was concerned with the health service. He suggested that Councillor Shorrock’s amendment could have been a separate motion.

A vote on the amendment was carried, as was a further vote on the substantive motion. Councillor Bryant asked that his vote against the substantive motion be recorded.