Lib Dem councillor slams CCG over handling of minor injury unit plans

“Anodyne”, “bland” and “dreadful” are the words that Liberal Democrat councillor Lorna Dupré has used to describe the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group’s blueprint for health in our area.
On her blog, written after the public meeting in Ely to address the future of minor injury units and outpatient services, the county councillor for Coveney, Little Downham, Mepal, Pymoor, Sutton, Wardy Hill, Way Head, and Witcham and district councillor for Sutton slammed the CCG in its handling of the situation so far.
She said: “I pointed out how anodyne and bland the Clinical Commissioning Group’s recent dreadful Fit For the Future document had been, and how totally it had failed to address the real problems facing health care in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough that we had been discussing tonight.
“How would they improve their consultation processes?
“And would they make better use of relationships with councillors and others in the local community who could help publicise consultations and events, and make sure they were truly representative?”

She said the well attended meeting on Tuesday demonstrated that people wanted to be more seriously consulted by the local NHS and “to be treated like grown-ups in the face of the very real problems facing our health services here in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough” in the months and years ahead.
“I hope we’ll see more such meetings, and a Clinical Commissioning Group that is open and honest with local residents.  It’s just a pity that the Clinical Commissioning Group had to be forced into this one by the leaking of their discussions.”
Speaking to Spotted in Ely afterwards, Ms Dupré said: “No one should under-estimate the financial challenge facing our local NHS, or the difficulty of some of the decisions they will be required to make.
“There are a large number of local residents who care passionately about our health service and want to have their say.  They need to be treated as adults, rather than patronised with leaflets like the Clinical Commissioning Group’s recent banal ‘Fit for the Future’.
“It’s disappointing that the CCG had to be bounced into meeting the public about these plans, and I really hope they will seriously up their game when it comes to communicating with local people.
It’s vital that we retain services capable of treating urgent medical issues locally and conveniently for residents, rather than putting more pressure on already stretched GP services and A&E departments twenty miles away.”