Local MP Andrew Percy joined Town Councillors and East Riding Councillors on a visit to Goole Hospital last Friday. Local hospital campaigner Josie Head also took part in the visit which was established in light of concerns over bed numbers at the hospital. Andrew and the other guests visited various parts of the hospital and were able to speak with front line staff and representatives of the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust.
Andrew says, "The visit to the hospital was incredibly enlightening and provided us with a great opportunity to speak to front line hospital staff. I joined a group that visited the surgical wards (5 and 6) as well as medical ward 2. I had a very detailed discussion with staff on Ward 2 about bed numbers and I was especially keen to learn how often the ward was having to flex its bed numbers to accommodate patients. Bed number on that ward are set at 15 but are regularly 'flexed' up to 18 or more and it would seem to me that there are further questions to be asked about whether or not 15 is an adequate base number of beds on this ward.
One of the discussions we had related to whether or not patients in the Goole area were necessarily aware of the full range of services available at the hospital. We have many examples of patients being offered treatment at other hospitals and there is clearly more work to be done raising the profile of Goole both with local patients and GPs. The Trust are absolutely committed to bringing more services to Goole we heard about new treatments being added such as those relating to the treatment of deep vein thrombosis.
I also talked at length about the provision of palliative care at the hospital and I am keen to work with the hospital on improving this in to the future. Those requiring hospice services often have to travel to Hull or Scunthorpe and I am planning to speak further to the Trust about how we might look at providing more of these services at Goole.
I found the visit to be very positive but there is still some way to go before all of the concerns raised by this campaign are alleviated. What has become clear however is that the Trust have repeatedly assured us that there is no agenda to downgrade Goole and that they are committed to bringing more, not less services to the hospital.
Myself, Josie Head and local Councillors will be meeting again in the next couple of weeks to put together an agenda for a further meeting with the Trust. That will include the issue of bed numbers on the medical wards, the provision of palliative services and the relationship between the Trust and the Ambulance Service and local GPs."