Heatherwood Hospital
Jan to June 1990

Action Group Wants a Say Over Heatherwood

A Community action group formed to fight the possible closure of life-saving services at Heatherwood Hospital has asked to have a say during the professional consultation.
Led by the chairman, Bracknell borough mayor Arthur Cheney, the East Berkshire Hospitals Action Group said it wanted to give its opinion to the consultants Touche Ross.
Touche Ross was appointed in November last year to look into ways of saving cash for the East Berkshire Health Authority.
The authority brought in the consultants after a proposal to move casualty, obstetrics, special care baby and paediatric units from Heatherwood to Wexham Park in Slough met with fierce public opposition.
The action group was formed last September in order to investigate the issues surrounding the health authority's closure proposals.
Brian Mackness, spokesman for the health authority, said Touche Ross was interested in everyone's opinion.
There may not be time to talk personally to every group concerned but written responses, sent care of the health authority, would be considered.
Extract Bracknell Times 11/01/1990

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Drugged Patient Violence 'Must Not Happen Again'

By Jim Stevens
Bosses at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital have pledged to ensure that an incident where police were forced to use riot shields to calm a mentally ill patient is never repeated.
Police rushed to Heatherwood Hospital on December 18 last year when a patient, who had been drinking, lost control, smashed up his room and mutilated himself.
But after carrying out an investigation of the incident, hospital chiefs have said it should never have happened.
Assistant general manager Jacqueline Clark said: "It should not have happened and it must not happen again."
Volatile
She added: "We have not been looking for scapegoats but there were a couple of members of staff whose role was less than impressive."
She confirmed that two staff would receive a "serious talking to" as a result of the incident.
But Ms Clark stressed that local people should not be given the wrong impression.
She said: "It was an unfortunate and regrettable incident. It was very much a one-off, we hope."
The volatile situation was sparked off when the man, who was following a course of drugs which should not be mixed with alcohol, began drinking in his room.
Staff called police after he tried to smash the window of the room he was in. The patient had cut himself.
During the incident police were forced to wedge the man between riot shields in an attempt to restrain him and prevent further injury.
Extract Bracknell Times 18/01/1990

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Heatherwood Battle Lines Are Drawn Up

Battle lines are being drawn up for the next stage of the campaign to keep life-saving services at Heatherwood Hospital.
The Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee has pledged to stick to its guns and fight against the proposals to transfer acute services from the Ascot hospital to Slough's Wexham Park Hospital.
The non-political committee agreed on Monday night that it did not want to betray the trust placed in it by the 72,000 people that signed the petition against the closures.
East Berkshire Health Authority announced in July it was considering moving casualty, special care baby, paediatric and obstetric units from Ascot to Slough in a bid to avert a cash and staff crisis.
The public outcry against the plans led to the appointment of an independent management team to investigate the authority's problems.
The campaign committee is now pressing for face-to-face talks with the management consultants Touche Ross.
Its main fear is that lives will be lost if accident and emergency services are moved to Wexham Park Hospital.
Chairman Paul Timperley believes it is crucial the group continue to campaign against the transfer of acute services from Heatherwood Hospital, rather than be diverted by any other options.
He said: "We are here as a pressure group saying we want certain health care facilities provided for the people of Bracknell."
Hospital GMB union representative John McDougall believes the health authority can still reject the work of the consultants.
Before the meeting he said: "All the health authority is doing is throwing up a smoke screen hoping that the consultants will come down in favour of what they propose."
Touche Ross will submit a report of their findings to the district health authority at the end of February.
Extract Bracknell Times 25/01/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The caption "Union representative John McDougall shows the strength of feeling over Heatherwood; a pile of signatures 72,000 deep"
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

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Campaign To Save Hospital

THE Save Heatherwood Campaign is the organisation which was formed from the meeting on September 4 1989.
The meeting was held at Great Hollands Health Centre, Bracknell, and numerous organisations, churches and political parties came together to protest at the proposed plans for Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
Its committee was formed from that public meeting and its finances are entirely that of public donation, independent of any political party.
The committee wishes it to be known that it has no connection with the group calling itself the East Berkshire Hospital
Action Group which is organising meetings throughout the town.
The Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee remains totally committed to fighting for Heatherwood Hospital to remain a major acute services hospital and will continue to campaign against any plans which transfer resources or services from Heatherwood.
We believe that to be the wishes of the majority of people in Bracknell and district.
Paul Timperely
Chairman of the Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee.
Extract Evening Post 05/02/1990

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Pub's Cash Helps Hospital

Customers at the Woodcutters pub in Forest Park, Bracknell, have raised £1,025 since Christmas for the Friends of Heatherwood Hospital.
The cash, from raffles and auctions held by manager Mick Simmonds and his wife Sharron, will go to ward 14, where patients with mental problems are treated.
Extract Evening Post 08/02/1990

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Hospital Benefits

The Friends Heatherwood Hospital are more than £1,000 better off thanks to the generosity of a Bracknell pub. Customers at the Woodcutters pub in Forest Park have raised £1,025 since Christmas for the group.
The cash, which was raised through raffles and auctions held by manager Mick Simmonds and his wife Sharron, will go to ward 14, where patients with mental problems are treated.
Extract Wokingham Times 15/02/1990

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Neighbourhood Page ( Bracknell)

"Think slim!" is the motto for John Ryan, steward of Great Hollands Community Association Social Club.
He is on a sponsored diet to raise money for the children's ward at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot.
John said: "My aim is to lose a stone and a half in four weeks, but I am not giving away details of the diet.
All I will say is that I am not touching beer during the four weeks." He has already collected £104 and is hoping for a really good sum by the end of the diet.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/02/1990

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New Hope For Heatherwood

By Jim Stevens
Radical plans to re-shape the health district and keep a major acute hospital in the Bracknell area could still get the go-ahead.
The East Berkshire Hospitals Action Group believe that a shake-up of health boundaries, bringing more people into the Bracknell catchment area, would support a major hospital.
Outcry
Last Tuesday evening the group held face-to-face meetings with Touche Ross, the management consultants employed by the district health authority to look at hospital care in the area.
The consultants were appointed after the public outcry against proposals to move casualty, special baby care, paediatric and obstetric units from Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital to Wexham Park in Slough, in a bid to avert a cash and staffing crisis.
EBHAG member Catriona Moore confirmed that Touche Ross was considering their idea of re-shaping the health district, allowing a major acute hospital to remain in the Bracknell area.
She said: "We are still pushing to keep Heatherwood or have another hospital in the district. But there are some problems now in getting capital from the Department of Health."
Acute services
Members of the action group believe the district and regional health authority will only retain a hospital providing acute services if it serves a population of more than 300,000.
Heatherwood currently serves around 145,000 people, whilst Wexham Park caters for a population of 220,000.
Heatherwood could remain the district hospital if Wokingham was included in the East Berkshire district, leaving Wexham to be incorporated in the Wycombe Health Authority.
Welcomed
The idea was welcomed by people across the borough at a series of public meetings organised by the group.
Mrs Moore believes that many people would ignore Wexham Park and travel to Reading if Heatherwood lost its acute services.
She said: "Everybody knows where Reading is but nobody has got a clue where Wexham Park is.
And it is not the time to find out when you have got a bleeding child in the back of the car."
She added: "We do not mind compromising a little bit but we do not want to be sold down the river."
Consultants at Touche Ross will submit a report of their findings to the district health authority at the end of February.
Extract Bracknell Times 22/02/1990

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MP's Plan for New Hospital

By Jim Stevens
A New general hospital serving Wokingham and Bracknell would be the answer to the area's healthcare problems,according to a local MP.
Andrew MacKay said it should be built on a green field site, although he did not say where. Now the Bracknell MP is to approach his Wokingham counterpart to suggest the new hospital. But Mr MacKay still believes that the future of Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital should be made secure.
Emphasised
Last Wednesday Mr MacKay held discussions with Touche Ross, the management consultants employed by health officials to consider the future of hospital care in the area.
He emphasised to the consultants that the long-term future of Heatherwood's casualty, obstetrics, paediatric and special baby care units must be made safe by the health authority. But he believes there is a need for a new general hospital in the area, replacing services which Bracknell people often use at Wexham Park, Slough.
He said: "I do believe. that in conjunction with Wokingham, part of Reading and the area to the west, we should have a large hospital rather than relying on Wexham Park."
The MP said he would take up this matter with Wokingham MP John Redwood. He said the hospital should be built in a location where it would cover the Bracknell and Wokingham areas.
Mr MacKay has already been assured by the health authority that money will be spent on upgrading facilities at Heatherwood during the coming year.
And he is confident good sense will prevail and Heatherwood will keep its crucial services. He said: "I have established from the health authority that the highest priority in this financial year is upgrading the theatres at Heatherwood.
"This should underline to local people that Heatherwood is not being run down. It has a proper future as a community hospital." He added: "It is essential that out- patient facilities must be kept open at Heatherwood.
To expect pregnant mums to find their way across to Slough without adequate transport facilities is disgraceful. "At the moment I can understand why in-patients should quite often be referred to Wexham Park."
But Mr MacKay said that it was essential that the maternity, obstetric, paediatric and 24-hour casualty units were kept at Heatherwood.
Consultants Touche Ross were appointed following the public outcry against proposals to move casualty, special baby care, paediatric and obstetric units from Heatherwood to Wexham Park in a bid to avert a cash and staffing crisis.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 01/03/1990

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Super Hospital Report Shock

By Kim Hewitt
Three major Berkshire hospitals should be sold off and re- placed by a giant super hospital, according to a shock report released today. A team of independent management consultants asked to study the proposed closure of Heatherwood casualty unit have stunned health chiefs with their findings.
The experts from consultants Touche Ross are calling for a new "Mid Berkshire' super hospital possibly sited in Earley or Winnersh to take patient care into the next century.
The report says the closure of Ascot's Heatherwood and Reading's Royal Berkshire and Battle hospitals would help finance the super hospital, costing anything from £100 to £200 million.
Slough's Wexham Park hospital would become the main emergency hospital serving that part of East Berkshire.
The report says, a Mid Berkshire hospital would have to cater for people in both parts of the county including Bracknell, Ascot and the Reading area. Sources say a suitable site is likely to be found in the Earley or Winnersh area.
Touche Ross, one of the top ten management consultants in the world, handed its findings to East Berkshire Health Authority bosses on Friday.
The radical proposals a bitter blow for pressure groups and residents who have been fighting hospital closure threats will be discussed at an authority meeting on March 21. The report will be published for the public at the end of March.
If approved, East Berkshire which commissioned Touche Ross will call for top level talks with its West Berkshire colleagues over the future of the current NHS hospitals.
Both authorities will be forced to give the super hospital idea consideration at a time when each is suffering staffing and financial pressures.
If the super hospital is agreed by both authorities it could be between five and 10 years before facilities are running.
That means the authorities will have to look at ways of providing health care service in the interim period.
Touche Ross concludes that in the short term East Berkshire should press on with plans to transfer Heatherwood's casualty, maternity and special care facilities to Slough's Wexham Park.
That decision will provoke outrage in East Berkshire which has, for more than a year, been fighting the plans with public meetings, a 70,000-plus petition and a human-chain demonstration.
EBHA chairman Dr Donald McWilliams said: "It is now EBHA's job to consider all these options in drawing up plans which will be in the best interests of the public as a whole."
Extract Evening Post 05/03/1990

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Medicine Prescribed For Health Budget Headache:
A Super Hospital

Kim Hewitt reports
A £150 million-plus super hospital is no longer a pipe dream as health care across the whole of Berkshire moves swiftly towards the 21st Century. For years, such a radical proposal seemed a non-starter with health service funds stretched to the limit.
But now management consultants Touche Ross and their team of independent experts have found the solution.
In a long-term strategy they propose a futuristic Mid- Berkshire super hospital, possibly in Winnersh or Earley, to cater for the people of both the east and west of the county.
The ambitious plan would take five to 10 years to implement and would mean the eventual closure of Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital and Reading's Royal Berkshire and Battle hospitals. These sites would be sold off to cover the costs of the super hospital.
Wexham Park Hospital in Slough the main district hospital in the east along with Heatherwood would be retained as an acute service. Obviously, much has to be considered and reviewed, and there will have to be top-level consultations between members of the East Berkshire Health Authority, which commissioned the Touche Ross report, and their colleagues in the west.
If such a super hospital is given the go-ahead, it is likely West Berkshire Health Authority chiefs will take over the management role.
The far-reaching recommendation is bound to provoke a great deal of protest from pressure groups and those who have been battling to prevent any closures at Reading and Ascot.
Pressure
But health chiefs are under immense pressure from several quarters, with staff and cash shortages and greater patient expectations.
East Berkshire Health Authority chairman Dr Donald MeWilliams said: "A number of pressures are forcing change, not least the high cost of providing the high-tech facilities that the public and medical staff have come to expect and will continue to expect.
"We saw great value, then, in having an independent appraisal of the way in which we might approach this.
"In the event, the problems we foresaw last year by no means unique to East Berkshire-are, if anything, further emphasised by Touche Ross."
Their report admits the East Berkshire Health Authority faces a "significant capital cost even to retain its current hospital buildings and approve them to acceptable standards".
It says there are also a number of disadvantages in having emergency care at both Wexham and Heatherwood. One of the main problems is ensuring there are adequate junior medical staff rotas for on-call work.
The report states: "Our view is based on our concern about the Today we exclusively reveal how independent experts are advising health chiefs to opt for a £150 million super hospital in Mid-Berkshire.
This would mean the closure of the Royal Berkshire, Battle and Heatherwood hospitals. ability of the (East Berks) district to maintain sufficient staff to give high-quality emergency medical care on two balanced sites." It adds: "We understand that there have been cases of seriously ill patients being treated by registrars (staff with several years experience who have speciality/research interests) commuting across the district during the night."
At a time when East Berkshire's population is likely to increase by 10 per cent between 1987 and 1997 it says: "The quality of care offered in each option has been the over-riding concern."
The population of the whole county is expected to rise by 5.5 per cent between 1997 and 2007- with more than 17,000 more people in the east.
Elderly
The report also says the district needs to look at its provision of services for the growing numbers of elderly people. Such a facility could be made available at Heatherwood.
Touche Ross have studied a host of possible options in East Berkshire including providing acute care in one general hospital Wexham Park along with a supporting hospital. They say a super hospital in East Berkshire, such as in an area between Windsor and Slough, has many advantages.
But despite numerous investigations a suitable site has not been identified in an area which consists primarily of Green Belt land.
A super hospital further west, however, would have excellent road and rail links, would cater for an increase in acute beds, the full integration of specialist units and the efficient use of staff.
Revenue advantages would include mass savings from reduced service duplication at a time when the East Berks authority is battling to stay out of the red. Touche Ross say super hospital would be too large for the Royal Berkshire site, hence the new Mid-Berkshire proposal.
Casualty
The super hospital would probably have around 1,000 beds (Heatherwood currently has 307 and the Royal Berks about 600), a major 24-hour casualty department, diagnostic services such as scanning and ultrasound units and residential accommodation for "several hundred staff".
There would also be provision for major in-patient and out-patient care including maternity and special care baby facilities, psychiatry, geriatric care and a mass of specialist units.
Brian Mackness, director of support services for the health authority, said: "Obviously there is much yet to consider. We will have to meet with our colleagues in West Berkshire and discuss the proposals with them.
"Touche Ross have considered the long-term future of health care and it could be five or 10 years before this new hospital facility is available.
"In the interim period, the authority will need to look at how it will manage its existing facilities."
Extract Evening Post 05/03/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by two photos.
The first photo captioned Reading's Royal Berks Hospital will be closed if the new super hospital id approved.
The second photo captioned Reading's Battle hospital would also be closed to make way for a mid-Berkshire hospital.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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Painful Cures Necessary in Hospital Care

Plans for a "super hospital" serving central Berkshire have been around for some months- but now a new report has brought the prospect much closer.
There is no doubt that hospital facilities in west and east Berkshire need to be revamped. On its cramped site close to the centre of Reading, the area's main hospital, Royal Berkshire, has no room to grow.
Far better, surely, to find an out-of-town site and build a modern facility with easy access and plenty of room for car parking.
The latest parking problems at Royal Berks with pay-and-display and wheel clamps probably troubling incoming patients more than their forthcoming operation only highlight the squashed nature of the London Road site.
In addition, the sight of ambulances fighting their way through the choked town-centre traffic in order to get patients to hospital can only confirm that our leading casualty unit is in the wrong place.
Building a super hospital on a green-field site will be controversial, though. There are those who believe that Reading must not lose Royal Berks, which has 150 years of tradition behind it and a remarkable history of service to the community.
There are many, too, who cannot hold with the closure of Heatherwood Hospital at Ascot. Tens of thousands, in fact, have been fighting to prevent the transfer of casualty, maternity and special care facilities to Slough's Wexham Park.
But the proposals by independent management consultants Touche Ross should be considered carefully, not just by the East Berkshire Health Authority, which now has a copy of the plans, but all NHS consumers, pressure groups and employees in the county.
If Berkshire is to have super health facilities for the year 2000, then the parties involved are going to have to bite the bullet and take some tough decisions
Extract Evening Post 05/03/1990

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Bitter Battle In East Berks

For more than a year, the people of East Berkshire have fought vigorously against plans to shut casualty, maternity and special care baby facilities at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
The East Berks Health Authority, facing cash and staff shortages, proposed transferring these acute services to Slough's Wexham Park Hospital, the second major hospital in the district.
Last October health chiefs finally agreed to shelve the proposals in favour of the independent Touche Ross report said by insiders to have cost as much as £600,000.
Merger
During the campaign over the Heatherwood closures, there were public meetings and health authority members, councillors and MPs were lobbied. There was also a human-chain demonstration and more than 70,000 names were collected on a petition.
It was alleged the proposals would have dangerous medical and social consequences and, in some cases, could mean a loss of life.
The protesters said the journey to Slough would take anything up to three hours for patients without cars.
They claimed it would be disastrous for Bracknell, which is scheduled to have up to 4,000 new homes forced on the north of the town by 1996.
The health authority, however, said the merger of facilities on one site I could save it more than £200,000 and rejected claims that lives could be lost.
The authority is pressing ahead with plans for a community hospital, to be based at Bracknell's Church Hill House Hospital for the mentally handicapped.
The community facility, to be built in the middle of this decade, will include some acute services.
Extract Evening Post 05/03/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The photo captioned Dr Donald McWilliams, chairman of the East Berkshire Health Authority its plans provoked a sustained campaign of public protest
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

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Super Hospital Is All Pie in the Sky

Radical proposals for a super hospital for Berkshire have been slammed as "ludicrous" and "pie in the sky nonsense".
A shock report suggests selling off Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital and Reading's Royal Berkshire and Battle hospitals and replacing them with a giant new hospital complex in mid- Berkshire.
But the proposal by independent management consultants has come under attack from health campaigners and unions.
They say it would leave patients in large parts of the county with unacceptable': distances to travel and thereby put lives at risk.
They also claim that the necessary funding possibly between £200 and £300 million-would never be found to get the scheme off the ground.
The report, commissioned by East Berkshire Health Authority and said by insiders to have cost around £60,000 to prepare, says a new hospital should serve both the east and west of the county Possible sites could be in the Earley or Winnersh areas.
Pete Ruhemann, member of West Berkshire Health Authority, said: "The prime issue is that hospitals have got to be accessible to the people who use them. "There is no site outside Reading which is going to be adequately accessible and therefore acceptable to the majority of people in West Berkshire.
"The public transport services to places like Earley and Winnersh are not ever going to be adequate to serve a hospital community."
He added: "I am sick and tired of these bright ideas which involve closing hospitals in communities in order to build in green fields." Dave Jones, spokesman for West Berkshire joint trade union committee, dismissed the idea as "pie in the sky nonsense".
He said: "To centralise everything on one site might be more efficient, but it won't necessarily be good for the population."
He said it could cost lives if people were faced with a 20-mile journey to reach emergency services. He added: "I find it amazing that any health authority has got enough money to fund management consultants to come up with more and more outrageous ideas."
West Berkshire Health Authority has spent two years investigating proposals to modernise The report will be considered at a meeting of the authority later this month.
Authority chairman Dr Peter Phillips said: "We have been told all along that we must look only at our own health authority by the region.
"We have been working for two years on this and what we don't want is someone to say at the last minute the goalposts have been moved."
He said that a mid-Berkshire super hospital would almost certainly mean merging East and West Berkshire health authorities.
Extract Evening Post 06/03/1990

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New General Hospital Planned

The Wokingham district could be getting a new general hospital.
The plan has been put forward by top health consultants Touche Ross, and would mean the axe for Heatherwood Hospital at Ascot and Wokingham Hospital.
Also scrapped would be Reading's Battle Hospital and the Royal Berkshire. The new hospital, to be built at Earley or Winnersh, would serve mid-Berkshire.
The radical proposals came after the consultants were asked to look at plans to transfer services from Heatherwood to Wexham Park Hospital, Slough.
Touche Ross recommended that East Berkshire District Health Authority should push ahead with transferring accident and emergency services, the special care baby unit, and obstetric and paediatric services to Slough.
They then put forward proposals for the long-term health care of people in the middle of Berkshire.
The consultants said East Berkshire should build a new hospital with neighbouring West Berkshire health authority, based in a central location to take patient care into the 21st century.
Earley or Winnersh have been suggested as possible sites, and spokesman Brian Mackness said: "Obviously it has to be if it is to serve Bracknell, Wokingham and parts or all of Reading." The plan would take up to ten years to complete.
East Berkshire health chiefs meet on March 21 to consider the report.
Extract Wokingham Times 08/03/1990

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Consultants Answer to Heatherwood Controversy
Super Hospital

By Jim Stevens
Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital could be sold for £10 million to finance a new joint district general hospital to the west of Bracknell.
Consultants employed by the health authority to look at the provision of hospital care in East Berkshire believe that it is not viable to keep life saying services at the Ascot hospital.
In a hard-hitting report Touche Ross back proposals to concentrate casualty, paediatrics and maternity units at Slough's Wexham Park hospital at an early date.
The consultants claim that the continuation of acute services at both Heatherwood and Wexham Park could leave the district short-staffed, threatening levels of emergency medical care.
The report states: "We recommend that in the short term the district proceeds with the concentration of maternity, paediatrics and accident and emergency services at Wexham Park.
We believe that the district health authority has no real choice since two comprehensive hospitals within the district boundary are not in our view viable."
But the consultants have called on the district health authority to look at ways of retaining Heatherwood as a supporting hospital as part of an interim strategy.
Touche Ross believe their far-reaching proposal could be completed for a capital cost of £51.4 million.
Current land prices show that Heatherwood would fetch £10.3 million.
If plans for a super-hospital are agreed by West and East Berkshire Health Authorities it could be anything between five and 10 years before the facilities are up and running.
The option looks sure to spark controversy at the next health authority meeting on March 21 at Heatherwood Hospital. Members of the Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee have already pledged to lobby the meeting, demanding that services are maintained at the hospital.
Chairman Paul Timperley said: "The short-term measure to concentrate services at Wexham Park is pure and simple vandalism, putting us back to the situation we were before the consultants were commissioned.
The best way to describe it is as a slap in the face for over 70,000 people who signed the petition protesting against the closures.
"In many ways it negates the democratic idea pushed by the Government that we as customers and patients have the right to decide the services we want.
In this case the opposite is happening." Mr Timperley said that he supported the idea of building a new general hospital, so long as it was accessible for Bracknell people.
Borough Mayor Arthur Cheney, who is chairman of the East Berkshire Hospitals Action Group, said he backed the idea of a new hospital.
But he said he would be disappointed to see services transferred from Heatherwood to Wexham Park.
"The answer will be to eventually use Heatherwood as an out-patient hospital and have a new hospital for in-patient facilities between Bracknell and Wokingham," he said.
Extract Bracknell Times 08/03/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The photo captioned Heatherwood Hospital Facing Axe.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

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Patients 'wrongly admitted' claims health chief
Heatherwood Deaths Shock

Patients have died after being wrongly admitted to Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital, East Berkshire's health chief has revealed.
In an astonishing admission East Berkshire Health Authority Chairman, Dr Donald McWilliams, said: "People have died at Heatherwood because there is no intensive care unit and the wrong patients have been admitted."
But within 24 hours of the outburst a health authority spokesman said there was no factual basis on which the health chief could make these comments.
He said: "Dr McWilliams has no evidence that any particular patient or group of patients has died as a result of the lack of facilities or care at Heatherwood Hospital."
He went on to say that Heatherwood could not meet today's high medical standards in some areas, leaving the health authority with the option either to build up services or not admit certain categories of patients.
But speaking to members of the Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee on Monday evening at the Great Hollands Health Centre Dr McWilliams said that it was not possible to justify Heatherwood's existence as a district general hospital.
And he confirmed he was in favour of moving accident and emergency services to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough as soon as possible.
He said: "Do you want quality or a third rate service on your doorstep?" He said later: "We are past the stage where an acceptable level of care for specialist services is at Heatherwood."
Dr McWilliams said he was glad the consultants, employed by the health authority to look at hospital care in East Berkshire, had agreed with its own earlier findings that it was not possible to retain two district general hospitals "of the sort we have."
In a hard-hitting report last week, consultants Touche Ross backed proposals to concentrate I casualty, paediatrics and maternity units at Wexham Park at an early date.
Dr McWilliams said he was in favour of a unit at Heatherwood which could treat minor accident injuries. He could not practically see how obstetrics and the special baby care unit could continue on two sites in East Berkshire. The only viable way of building a new super hospital in West Berkshire would be to close Heatherwood and the two Reading hospitals.
But Paul Timperley, chairman of the campaign committee, hit back at any plan to transfer services to Slough, saying: "You are ignoring the social cost of transferring people to other areas."
He told Dr McWilliams that it would take six hours for a Bracknell resident to travel to and from Wexham Park, at a cost of £5.45 and six changes of bus. The committee agreed to continue with their lobby of the health authority meeting next Wednesday morning in the recreation hall at Heatherwood.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/03/1990

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We Must Save Our Hospital

by Jim Stevens
Storm set to sweep Berkshire as health workers object to Super Hospital plans.
A storm of protest from health workers is set to sweep Berkshire in the wake of plans to move life-saving services away from Heatherwood Hospital.
Last week's revelation that the Ascot hospital could be sold for £10 million to finance a new joint district general hospital to the west of Bracknell has failed to quell fears about health care in the area.
Now that the idea of a new hospital has been mooted, union bosses and doctors believe that the short-term future of Heatherwood must be secured.
John McDougal, union shop steward at Heatherwood, said: "We welcome the idea of a new hospital but we do not support cutbacks in services until a hospital is completed."
He invited the public to join members of the Save Heatherwood Campaign in lobbying members of the health authority before their meeting next Wednesday morning.
Mr McDougall is determined the views of the 74,000 people who signed a petition to keep life saving ser- vices at Heatherwood must be heard.
Medical staff at Heatherwood fear that between five and seven lives a week would be lost if accident and emergency services were transferred to Wexham, he said. Dr Joe Warren, a consultant anaesthetist at Heatherwood Hospital and a Bracknell borough councillor, said: "I find it absolutely extraordinary that the regional health authority has allowed two exercises to go on in East Berkshire and West Berkshire without co-ordinating the two. West Berkshire Health Authority has been carrying out its own investigation into hospital services since last March.
A spokesman confirmed that there had been no discussions between the authorities about proposals for a hospital serving both areas. Dr Warren said: "If West Berkshire Health Authority says it wants to stay with the Royal Berkshire site we are back to where we started."
But he said there was a lot to be said for the idea of building a new hospital in West Berkshire.
"I understand they are considering a site somewhere near the M4 with easy access by road from Bracknell, Wokingham and Reading," he said.
But he said that people in Winkfield could experience problems travelling by road to a hospital west of Bracknell.
Dr Warren said that it was essential the health authority did not rush into any decision on the future of Heatherwood at its meeting on March 21.
He fears it would be virtually impossible to re-open a unit once it has been closed. "If the obstetrics unit was to be closed it would have appalling and dreadful effect on the population. Once it was closed it would be the devils own job to re-open it," he said. And he emphasised that the loss of units like accident and emergency, paediatrics and obstetrics would detract from the quality of the hospital, making it less attractive for potential staff.
With hospitals having the option of opting for self-government and putting their services out to contract in April 1991, Dr Warren believes there still may be time to rescue the hospital.
He said that both the obstetric and gynaecological departments at Heatherwood could be very competitive if they were contracted out.
But he expressed concern at the moral dilemmas doctors in a self- governing hospital where cash management was all important.
A doctor could find himself choosing between a patient who would need to occupy a bed for three weeks, making him non-cost-effective, or someone needing a bed for three days, making them by far the more viable patient, he said.
He said doctors were gravely concerned about the future of Heatherwood now that health consultants Touche Ross had backed proposals to concentrate casualty,paediatrics and maternity units at Slough's Wexham Park hospital. Great Hollands community worker Michael Bentley want to know why the health authority is refusing to build up services at Heatherwood.
He said: "It seems to me that it is just trying to divert issues away from the iniquitous scheme to transfer services to what might just as well be the other side of the moon."
Bracknell MP Andrew MacKay welcomed proposals for a new hospital.
He emphasised that a change in the district health authority boundaries would make this project possible. But Mr MacKay stressed that a casualty unit must be maintained at Heatherwood Hospital while a new hospital is built. He also backed the retention of the special baby care maternity units together with out-patient, obstetric, paediatric facilities.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/03/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by two photos.
The first phot showed the entrance to ward 2 and the sunken garden.
The second showed a picture of John McDougall.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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An Ideal Site for A New Hospital

As the controversy over Heatherwood Hospital and its possible closure rumbles on and we await the consultant's report to the East Berks Health Authority, there is now talk in your columns of a new general hospital to serve Bracknell and Wokingham.
There is also talk of putting this on a "green field" site. Some of us think Bracknell should have had a hospital from the days it was first designated a new town.
However in these days of more and more road congestion and less and less open countryside surely we should be thinking of siting any new hospital (a) near centre of population served and (b)with easy rail and bus access. Such a site exists in the centre of Bracknell. I refer to the British Aero- space site in Downshire Way/Skimped Hill.
This would also be appropriate since the need for weapons of destruction is now much reduced and it would be nice to think that such a site could in future be used to provide for the real health needs of local people rather than destruction.
If the cost of the land is a problem, a small cut in the overall arms budget of UK could easily finance the cost of the land and indeed the new building.
R Furley, Kyle Close, Bracknell.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 15/03/1990

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Cruse

THE Bracknell branch of Cruse is organising a course to develop awareness and sensitivity to the needs of bereaved people.
Cruse is a national charitable organisation whose aim is to help bereaved people and their families by offering support through counselling, social contact, practical advice and help.
The aims of the course are: to develop an understanding of bereaved people; to explore the role or counselling and to promote and support the work of Cruse.
Starting on April 30, the course will run over nine Monday evenings and will combine lectures, talks and small group discussions.
"Working with bereavement is both challenging and rewarding," said Mrs Victoria Sturdy of Cruse, "but we do not recommend that anyone who has experienced a major bereavement in the last couple of years should apply for a course just yet."
The course fee is £20 and there are application forms in Bracknell Library, at Heatherwood Hospital and at the Times offices in Bracknell and Wokingham. Or you can write to Victoria at 50 Arthur Road, Wokingham.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/03/1990

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Chairman Quits

The chairman of East Berkshire Health Authority has resigned.
Dr Donald McWilliams stepped down from the authority covering Fulmer, Stoke poges and the Farnham's after he was criticised for comments about Heatherwood Hospital. He spoke at at a meeting of the save Heatherwood Hospital Committee and his remarks were interpreted as critical of staff and care standards at the Ascot hospital.
Dr McWilliams has been chairman for eight years and his deputy Jan Morrison will stand in until another chairman is appointed.
Extract Buckinghamshire & Amersham Advertiser 21/03/1990

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New Super hospital Is Discussed by Bosses

By Dawn Doherty
Health chiefs are to press ahead with proposals to revamp hospital services in Berkshire.
A radical report commissioned by East Berkshire Health Authority has suggested selling off three of the county's hospitals and replacing them with a giant super hospital.
There are fears the shock new report could delay proposals for the future of health care in the west of the county.
Two years have been spent investigating how to take services into the 21st century and the options will go to a meeting in May.
But Dr Peter Phillips, chairman of West Berkshire Health Authority, said they should not consider "moving the goalposts."
He said: "We should carry on the exercise we have all spent a great deal of time and effort on."
-East Berkshire Health Authority is today due to consider the report produced by independent management consultants.
It suggests the closure of Reading's Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals and Heatherwood at Ascot in favour of a mid-Berkshire super hospital.
If supported, the plan could affect the shortlisted options for services in West Berkshire. Vice-chairman Rosalie Monbiot said she had been "filled with horror" at the idea of having a super hospital at one end of the district.
West Berkshire health bosses will be assessing the impact of the proposal on their own plans before they meet in May.
They want to centralise services on one site instead of splitting them between Reading's Royal Berkshire and Battle hospitals.
The options include a major rebuilding programme at either the RBH or Battle, or a new hospital on a green field site outside Reading
Extract Evening Post 21/03/1990

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Health Chief Forced To Quit

By Jim Stevens
Fury over 'patients have died' claim
The head of East Berkshire Health Authority has quit amid a storm of protest over his claims that patients died after wrongly being admitted to Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
Dr Donald McWilliams resigned on Monday as of the chairman authority. He made his "patients have died" claim to a meeting of Save Heatherwood campaigners last week.
He also admitted that it was not possible to justify Heatherwood's existence as a district general hospital.
But the storm of protest which greeted these comments left Dr McWilliams with no option but to resign.
A statement from the health authority on Monday said: "His resignation follows criticism of comments he made at a meeting of the Save Heatherwood Campaign Committee."
On Friday medical consultants from Heatherwood and King Edward VII in Windsor passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in the chairman and called for his resignation.
In a public statement issued on Saturday the consultants said that Dr McWilliams had dented staff morale and eroded public confidence in the hospital.
It said: "The consultants, many of whom also work at Wexham Park Hospital, believe that medical standards at Heatherwood Hospital are comparable with, if not better, than those at neighbouring hospitals."
It added: "Without waiting for the opinions of medical and other staff Dr McWilliams has determined on implementing the Touche Ross recommendations objective approach." In a report commissioned by the health authority, Touche Ross backed proposals to concentrate casualty, paediatrics and maternity units at Slough's Wexham Park hospital at an early date.
The hospital consultants believe this report is flawed and fails to consider the balanced option, which would keep complimentary services at Wexham Park and Heatherwood.
But in an astonishing U turn this week the health authority offered a glimmer of hope to the 74,000 people who signed a petition demanding the retention of services at Heatherwood.
It was advising members of the authority to retain casualty at Heatherwood when they met on Wednesday.
But other recommendations say that maternity and special baby care facilities can only be best served in Wexham Park.
Extract Bracknell Times 22/03/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The caption under the photo of the Dr,Criticism: Donald McWilliams
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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Health Boss Speaks Out

from Letters page
East Berkshire Health Authority's decision to ask one of the world's leading independent management consultants,Touche Ross to appraise both the merits of the authority's own plans for the future of its hospital services, and those put forward by others, was broadly welcomed last year
EBHA thought it was important that the consultants' assessment be made public at the earliest opportunity, and without any qualification whatsoever.
That we have done. Given some of the initial public response to that report, however, comment might now be helpful in increasing public understanding of this vital issue.
The Touche Ross recommendations do not constitute the authority's revised plan for the restructuring of the district's hospitals.
That is currently under preparation,having regard both to the consultants' view, and other factors, and it will be presented for the consideration of the authority's members (who reflect many shades of community opinion) on March 21. It will then become available for public consideration.
The consultants thoroughly appraised every option put forward after considerable consultation with medical opinion and community health representatives.
And I might say they were obliged to keep patient care paramount among their deliberations. So now that the 'referee' if you will has made his decision, any charges of vandalism or lack of democratic practice, lie, it seems to me, with those who have made them, and not with the East Berkshire Health Authority.
The significance of the report is not that it proposes that the community's health authority should consider developing two major hospitals (the further expansion of Wexham Park Hospital, and the building of a new mid-Berkshire hospital in conjunction with a neighbouring health authority) but that, like ourselves, it rings an alarm bell over the very considerable pressures threatening the quality of hospital services in the future pressures by no means unique to East Berkshire.
It is Touche Ross's assessment, that EBHA is already trying to do too much by maintaining its hospital services at the current level. They warn that if East Berkshire continues to operate two major hospitals within the district, it is at risk of failing to provide the quality of patient care, medical and technological support, the staff and the training given to them, the community should expect.
No one would wish that to happen. So painful, even radical, decisions have got to be made; they have got to be made now; they have got to be made wisely; and they have got to be made by the East Berkshire Health Authority which is the only organisation with charged undertaking that responsibility on behalf of all the district's 360,000 residents.
In the circumstances, I am certain that the decisions our planners will shortly present for public consideration, will secure the best possible hospital services for the future.
Dr Donald McWilliams
Chairman,East Berkshire Health Authority Frances House 81 Frances Road Windsor
Extract Bracknell Times 22/03/1990

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And Now So Much the People Affected

from Letters page
So now we have been told. We don't need an accident and emergency service, obstetrics and paediatrics or a special care baby unit. We've also all paid approximately £40,000 it is rumoured for the pleasure of being told this!
The suggestion that these services must be transferred to Wexham Park at the earliest opportunity as contained in the final report from the management consultants Touche Ross is a slap in the face for the thousands of people in Bracknell and district who have campaigned against these transfers.
But this is not the final curtain for our precious services. These plans can be defeated. Many people would agree with the long term proposals in this report for a new hospital between Bracknell and Reading but this is not the issue.
The issue is that the people of Bracknell have demanded a continuation of their services.
If a new hospital is built by the end of this decade many will rejoice but in the intervening years we are not prepared to travel to Wexham Park if and when such a hospital materialises.
We would appeal to all those concerned. over the reappearance of these ludicrous proposals, pensioners, mothers, those who have relied or know those who rely on these precious services to attend a mass lobby of the district health authority meeting which the public have a right to attend on Wednesday March 21st at 9.30am the Recreational Hall Heatherwood Hospital.
We must make sure that every member of that authority realises we are not prepared to be "mugged" of our services.
PAUL TIMPERLEY Chairman,
Save Heatherwood Campaign Oakdale, Crown Wood, Bracknell.
Extract Bracknell Times 22/03/1990

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Cook-Chill For Hospital

By Alistair Horn Controversial cook-chill food will soon be on offer to patients at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital now that major changes to the catering department are nearly complete.
The new system, a first for East Berkshire, will start at the Hospital in early April, it was confirmed yesterday.
Health authority bosses were hoping to start the system in January but were forced to delay the plans with a revamp of the hospital kitchens.
The authority's director of support services Brian Mackness said: "When the system was being commissioned, we found a significant fault with the tiling in the kitchen. "It was important we got that fixed before the system could start. The whole kitchen had to be rebuilt round the new system.
"There is no definite date for it to start because of the remedial work that is being finished."
The cook-chill method of producing hot food will now be closely monitored at Heatherwood and if it is successful, other hospitals are expected to follow the lead.
Fears were raised over the safety of such food last year after a series of food poisoning outbreaks outside the health service.
The Community Health Council asked for reassurances that the system would be hygienic and safe.
It involves the food being cooked and then rapidly chilled to a final temperature of between zero and three degrees centigrade.
The food is then transported in refrigerated lorries to hospitals. where it can be held for up to five days before re-heating.
A central production unit is to be set up at Reading's Battle hospital to prepare and deliver cook-chill products across Berkshire.
A planning application for the unit has just been submitted to Reading Borough Council.
Extract Evening Post 23/03/1990

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Baby Boom

The Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire, has closed 20 beds because so many nurses are off work pregnant.
Extract Liverpool Daily News (Welsh Edition) & Birmingham Mail 24/03/1990

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Pregnant pause

The Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berks, closed 20 beds because so many nurses are off work pregnant.
Extract Evening Mail 24/03/1990

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Stork Snag!

The Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berks. closed 20 beds because so many nurses are off work pregnant.
Extract Evening Post 24/03/1990

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Staff Crises Axes beds At Hospital

By Kim Hewitt Berkshire hospital chiefs have been forced to shut down beds because more than 10 per cent of nurses are taking maternity leave.
Bosses at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital have already closed five paediatric beds in the children's Rainbow Ward and yesterday half the beds on a 30-bed medical ward were pulled out of action.
The decision followed an "abnormally high" number of qualified nurses on maternity and long-term sick leave.
It is predicted that during April and May about 20 out of 307 specialist nursing staff will be off work.
Hospital general manager John Neate said: "We have a very limited ability to replace nurses in view of the availability of staff working in agencies.
"As always we shall try to make the most intensive use of the beds we have in use and will do our best to minimise the impact."
He admitted that if there was a sudden influx of sick children, some might have to be admitted to Slough's Wexham Park Hospital.
But he said: "Of course it would be more difficult for mothers with children having to go to Wexham but we will make every effort to accept admissions passed our way and to re-open beds as soon as possible."
The bed closures are likely to be in effect for at least a month and health bosses will monitor the situation.
Babies will be born on the M4 motorway if Berkshire mums are forced to travel to Slough for maternity facilities, according to a leading child birth organisation.
The National Childbirth Trust claims many mothers will be giving birth in the back of an ambulance on the motorway hard shoulder if plans to close the maternity unit at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital go ahead.
The only way the proposals can be over turned is if the East Berkshire Health watchdog, the Community Health Council, objects to the transfer plans and refers the final decision to the Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke. More than half of CHC members are expected to oppose the proposals.
Extract Evening Post 26/03/1990

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New 1000 Bed Hospital

Health chiefs are pressing ahead with ambitious multi-million pound proposals for a 1,000 bed hospital which could be sited in the Winnersh/Earley area.
And they are to hold talks with their colleagues in West Berkshire to look at the viability of the proposal, which would inevitably signal the demise of Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
A meeting of the East Berkshire Health Authority agreed last Wednesday to support the idea as their preferred long term option.
District general manager David Treloar told members that it could take 10 years and more than £100 million to build the hospital, which would also serve the Wokingham and Reading area.
He said that it was not possible for the Bracknell area to sustain a district general hospital.
Officers from the health authority will discuss the far reaching idea with West Berkshire and Oxford Regional health authorities during the next three months.
But there is no guarantee the ambitious plans will be given the go-ahead.
Bracknell borough representative on the health authority, Bill Wreglesworth, fears the decision could backfire on the health authority.
At Wednesday's meeting he called on health chiefs to postpone any decision on the future of acute services in East Berkshire until a definite site has been earmarked for the hospital.
But his motion was unanimously rejected by the health authority. After the meeting deputy director of support services for East Berkshire Health Authority, Phil Jacques, said: "We are trying to explore the concept of building a new hospital, which is not exactly on their door step, but a lot nearer than Wexham Park." In the short term health chiefs backed controversial recommendations to transfer obstetrics, special baby care and neo-natal intensive care units from Heatherwood to Wexham Park in Slough.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 29/03/1990

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Adam Mckinley Views Letter's Page

The East Berkshire Health Authority announced this week that they are planning a £10 million revamp of Heatherwood Hospital. I'll believe it when I see it.
Among the goodies are a new operating theatre and two new wards for medical and surgical patients, to be aimed ultimately at helping the elderly.
Last week the authority decided to close down the maternity and special care baby units and transfer them to Wexham Park Hospital at Slough.
The authority is also to hold talks with the West Berkshire Authority on a super-hospital costing £100 million in Mid-Berkshire and reach a firm decision within four months.
Meanwhile 15 beds in the Heatherwood Children's Ward are being closed down, together with 30 beds in the medical ward, because there are not enough nurses as well as the need to save money.
The very sick joke of talking about spectacular plans in multi-millions of pounds they do not have, and are unlikely to get for many a long day, while running down Heatherwood, is not amusing the local citizenry. Mounting frustration is turning to anger.
Besides all major health authority proposals have to be agreed by the Community Health Council.
The council meets next Tuesday, and if it votes against the decision to transfer Heatherwood services to Wexham Park, Kenneth Clarke the Health Secretary, will decide for them. The Big Brother syndrome at the end of the day spells the end of all the blethering.
Those who have difficulty understanding the on-going saga of what is not happening to Heatherwood Hospital may well have come to the conclusion that the Berkshire Health Authority have gone down so many roads over Heatherwood that they are now stuck in a traffic jam of their own making. It is time this pie-in-the-sky exercise ended.
Heatherwood, in the form we know it, is for the chop, and as much of it as possible will be moved to Slough.
Most of us also know that the Health Service in hospitals in both East and West Berkshire is being screwed into the ground by Mr Clarke and his political colleagues, whose answer to every protest is a continuous whinge of denial that patient care is going from bad to worse.
Is it not time Heatherwood became a priority subject for immediate funding instead of the centre-piece of a collection of fairy tales brought about by a weak and indecisive health authority who are just not up to resisting political pressures.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 29/03/1990

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Nurses' Baby Boom Means Beds Close

Twenty beds at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital have been forced to close because of the high number of nurses taking maternity leave.
Five of the fifteen paediatric beds on the children's Rainbow Ward were pulled out of action last week and and half the beds on a 30-bed medical ward were shut down on Monday.
The moves follow predictions that about 20 of the 307 qualified nursing staff-more than 10 per cent will be off work during April and May because of long-term sick leave or pregnancy.
General manager said John Neate said: "We have a very limited ability to replace nurses in view of the availability of staff working in agencies.
"As always we shall try to make the most intensive use of the beds we have in use and will do our best to minimise the impact."
He added that if the number of sick children suddenly increased some would have to be admitted to Slough's Wexham Park Hospital.
And if there was a sudden demand for medical beds patients could be placed in non-medical wards or possibly be transferred to King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor.
But he added that they would hospital chiefs would do their best to admit children into Heatherwood and would try and re-open the beds as soon as possible.
Members of the Save Heatherwood Campaign have blasted the closures as another symptom of Berkshire Health Authority's cash crisis and chairman Paul Timperley said: "Again it shows a tragedy within the health service.
"It is essentially the lack of cash which is responsible for the bed closures which we hear about at Heatherwood Hospital every few months."
Hospital shop steward John McDougall added: "I am obviously very concerned about any bed closures.
"Hopefully they will employ more agency nurses this problem could be overcome if more money was available."
The beds are likely to remain closed for at least a month, although health bosses will continue to monitor the situation.
Extract Bracknell Times 29/03/1990

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Cook-chill food on the menu at Heatherwood

Next month will see the arrival of controversial Cook-chill food at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
The new system is due to start in early April after the completion of a revamp of the hospital's kitchens. The cook-chill method of producing hot food will be closely monitored at Heatherwood and if it is successful, other hospitals are expected to follow the lead.
Fears were raised over the safety of such food last year after a series of food poisoning outbreaks outside the health service.
The Community Health Council asked for reassurances that the system would be hygienic and safe. It involves the food being cooked and then rapidly chilled to a final temperature of between zero and "three degrees centigrade.
The food is then transported in refrigerated lorries to hospitals, where it can be held for up to five days before re-heating.
A central production unit is to be set up at Reading's Battle hospital to prepare and deliver cook-chill products across Berkshire.
A planning application for the unit has just been submitted to Reading Borough Council, and bosses are optimistic it will be up and running by mid-1991.In the meantime, Heatherwood will buy cook-chill food from private catering firms.
Extract Bracknell Times 05/04/1990

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Contemptuous Treatment is Going To Ruin Our Health

An SOS For Heatherwood
The district health authority has been persuaded to downgrade Heatherwood Hospital.
An eloquent delivery by the district manager again showed the contempt that district and regional management hold for the south half of the East Berks district.
The manager stated at the beginning of his address that advice of the consultant staff was to be disregarded.
It was also clear that the compelling demographic reasons for development of the service in the south of the district had been brushed aside.
You need not be reminded that the Bracknell area is one of the fastest growing populations in the county with a high proportion of young families.
King Edward V11 Hospital is in its terminal phase due to repeated cuts and the promised compulsory enlargement of Heatherwood has not occurred.
We were told that £9 million has been spent at Heatherwood and we were expected to accept this as evidence of management's good intentions for Heatherwood.
But where has the money gone? It has been spent on a unit for the elderly mentally infirm which is never more than 50 per cent occupied, a pharmacy and a cook house. At the same time Wexham Park Hospital has a new obstetric and gynaecological block, a new psychiatric block,large new paediatric department, a new pathology laboratory and a greatly extended lavishly equipped X-ray department.
This is surely evidence that the present proposals Heatherwood are not just so that junior doctors can have a 1 to 4 rota but are part of a long term plan towards a single site strategy. It is promised that more money will be spent at Heatherwood but there have been unfulfilled promises before, perhaps the most significant being the high dependency unit which has not been included in next year's capital expenditure.
What kind of hospital will we have at Heatherwood? If, as we are told, it is necessary to concentrate paediatrics and obstetrics at Wexham Park to enable the junior doctors to have a satisfactory on-call rota then the same arguments apply to medicine and surgery.
Therefore it will not be possible to have registrars covering Heatherwood at night and at weekends in any acute speciality. This will limit the type of work performed at Heatherwood to the relatively minor and make the provisions of an accident and emergency service possible from 9 to 5 on weekdays only.
Readers may remember that the first step in the downgrading of King Edward V11 Hospital was the reduction of the A and E service department to a 9 to 5 service.
The consultants at King Edward V11 and Heatherwood Hospitals feel aggrieved and insulted by the recent proposals. They have provided a high standard of service in the face of decreasing facilities.
In obstetrics neurology some of the best results in the county have been recorded.
However this is as nothing compared to the situation which faces young mothers and children of Bracknell.
I do not think they will regard it as just an "inconvenience."
H Treloar may be right that, in the present parlous state, his short term solution is the only financially viable option but I hope that public opinion may give the district health authority cause to re-think this important issue.
RJ LUCK,
Consultant Surgeon, Meadowbank, Maidens Green, Winkfield.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 05/04/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photos
The caption under a photo of the new EMI/MI unit read " A New Unit- but never more than half full "
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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Region 'at top' with its Fertility Services

By Dawn Doherty Health reporter
Childless couples in the Thames Valley have a better chance of getting help to end their heartbreak than those anywhere else in the country.
Six of the Oxford health region's eight districts, including West and East Berkshire, operate special fertility clinics.
And a survey carried out by Labour revealed that the region came out on top of the league for the provision of such facilities.
In the north-west, only five per cent have access to a clinic-and the hope of treatment to have families of their own.
Generally, NHS infertility services were found to be "patchy and inadequate," said the survey.
Yvonne Payne, from the Berkshire branch of the National Association for Childless Couples, said more women were having to pay for private treatment as the NHS does not provide the necessary services.
She praised the work of the West Berkshire clinic at Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital but said the treatments it could offer were "rather limited" because of financial constraints.
The clinic sees 500 patients each year but high demand means some women must wait three months for their, first consultation. East Berkshire Health Authority also offers fertility clinics.
Two have recently been set up, one at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot and the other at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.
Extract Evening Post 05/04/1990

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An invitation to visit our Easter Flower Festival

Court Crowthorne The Finchampstead Floral Society has been invited to display flower arrangements in the Showhouse of our superb development in Duke's Ride, Crowthorne. Come along this Easter weekend We look forward to seeing you For every visitor to our Flower Festival, Laing Retirement Communities will donate £1 towards Heatherwood Hospital. OPENING HOURS Good Friday 11 am-5.30 pm Easter Saturday 11 am-5.30 pm Easter Sunday 2 pm-5.30 pm Easter Monday 11 am-5.30 pm Phone 0344 775077 LAING Retirement CARING ABOUT STANDARDS
Extract Bracknell Times 12/04/1990

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Cheers For Our Favourite Granny!

British Red Cross Society Berkshire Branch
Queen mum opens the Red Cross headquarters
Members of Ascot Red Cross said it with flowers when the Queen Mother opened their new £90,000 headquarters.
Britain's favourite great grandmother declared the centre, in the grounds of Heatherwood Hospital, open on Friday.
And 13-year-old Abigail Simms, a junior Red Cross member from Darwood Road, North Ascot, was chosen to present her with a bouquet of pink roses and forget-me-knots.
Sporting a sky blue coat and matching hat the Queen Mother out-dazzled the sunshine as she arrived to cheers of joy from an excited crowd.
Greeted by Berkshire Vice-Lord Lieutenant, the Hon Captain Nicholas Beaumont, the Queen Mother then went inside the centre where she unveiled a commemorative plaque.
The Queen Mother, who is deputy president of the British Red Cross, told onlookers: "I congratulate most warmly those whose generosity and enterprise have made possible the fulfilment of this exciting venture."
As usual the Queen Mother found time during the visit to stop and chat to those who had waited so patiently to see her.
Jean Quartly, centre organiser, said: "It is an honour and great pleasure to have Her Majesty open the centre. We are all very proud."
Extract Bracknell Times 12/04/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by three photos.
The first photo captioned:A demonstration on the work of the Red Cross fascinates the Queen mother
The second photo captioned:The grand unveiling of the Red Cross plaque
The third photo captioned:The Queen Mother dazzled the excited crowds as she arrived sporting a sky blue coat and matching hat
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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Office Staff Struck by Mystery Bug

By Susan Marshall
Medical experts are combing Hewlett Packard's new Binfield complex in a bid to find the cause of a mystery illness that has struck at least six staff.
The investigation began after six staff collapsed, suffering headaches and nausea. They were treated at Heatherwood Hospital but later discharged, it is believed.
Samples of carpets, air and water at the new £10 million headquarters at Amen Corner have been taken away for analysis. Sue Luck, HP spokeswoman, said the results of the investigation were expected shortly.
She emphatically ruled out the possibility of the mystery bug being Legionnaires Disease.
She said: "We do recognise there's a bit of problem and have medical and technical staff on site."
She added: "All these who have been taken ill have had a full check up.
The company's doctor is working with other specialists to identify the cause.
"We have been assured that whatever is affecting the staff is not contagious," Borough environmental health officer Steven Loudoun said the council had been informed of the illnesses and were waiting to hear the results of the tests which began after employees first felt ill about 10 days ago.
About 500 staff have already moved into the new HQ and are being monitored to see if they show signs of illness.
The Amen Corner HQ covers 30 acres and will house the computer firm's sales, training, marketing and customer services departments, many moving from the company's Winnersh site.
Staff began moving in about two months ago and the complex is awaiting official opening. Bacteria which causes, Legionnaires Disease was discovered at Hewlett Packard's Wokingham Plant in 1988 and was traced to showerheads in the sports changing rooms.
Extract Bracknell Times 19/04/1990

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Hospital Chiefs Vote On Bed Transfers

East Berkshire health chiefs voted last week to transfer 108 acute beds to Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital and Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.
After the district's Community Health Council gave their backing to the scheme, members of East Berkshire Health Authority agreed to the transfer of the general medical and general surgical beds from Windsor's King Edward VII Hospital.
They accepted a proviso from the CHC that the transfer only be carried out if theatre facilities at Heatherwood were upgraded and a High Dependency Unit built there.
Although firm decisions on how many beds will go where has not yet been made, it is likely that Heatherwood will take all of the surgical in-patient beds and the majority of the medical beds.
John Neate, general manager of Heatherwood and King Edward VII Hospital, said he welcomed the decision and was now looking at ways in which the transfer could be carried out.
Timescale
But he pointed out there was no timescale on the transfer. Any firm decisions on the timing and method of the transfer will have to wait until after the district health authority makes a decision on the recommendations forward by the district general manager following the Touche Ross report.
The report, compiled by consultants to look at the future of health care in East Berkshire, makes several suggestions regarding the future of Heatherwood including the proposal to transfer the special care baby unit and obstetrics units to Wexham Park Hospital.
This suggestion is due to be put out to consultation for three months before health authority members meet to make a firm decision on it. If given the go-ahead it would mean space would be created which could accommodate transferred beds.
If, however, the units are kept at Heatherwood it means a £10 million expansion programme, already agreed by the authority for the hospital, would go ahead, thus providing facilities for the transfer.
The £10 million programme would see two new acute wards, two wards for acute elderly assessment, a four theatre operating complex, a day care unit, a High Dependency Unit and a pathology unit created.
This scheme could be jeopardised if the authority adopts a proposal to build a new super hospital situated between Reading and Bracknell.
Both consultants and management at Heatherwood have already expressed a wish to see a High Dependency Unit at Heatherwood regardless of the latest decision to transfer beds.
The district health authority has backed the idea but says there is currently no extra money to fund the project. If the hospital wants to push ahead with the plan at this time they will have to find the £100,000 required by making savings elsewhere in the hospital budget.
Extract Bracknell Times 03/05/1990

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New Row Over Smoking Ban

Doctor slams health bosses' clampdown
By Times reporter
A hospital consultant has slammed East Berkshire health chiefs' decision to ban smoking.
John Blaxland attacked the new policy, agreed at a meeting of East Berkshire District Health Authority, saying it "smacks of authoritarianism."
The ban, which will be imposed at all hospitals from next January, includes patients, visitors and all staff.
Staff will also be prohibited from smoking outside the hospital if they can be identified as a NHS employee.
But while district medical officer Dr Jeremy Cobb has defended the ban as a logical stop in the promotion of health, Mr Blaxland, a consultant at Heatherwood Hospital, believes it could lead to recruitment difficulties.
Mr Blaxland said: "Nurses are among the highest smokers and we have difficulty in recruiting nurses and specialist nurses.
"The new stance could deny us staff which are badly needed in the district."
All the health authority's job advertisements will highlight the new policy, which health managers believe will be a positive incentive to some.
Another health authority member, Juliet Clifford, said that many people admitted to hospital were already under stress.
To deny them the right to smoke would make them even more tense, she said.
Taking effect from January, the ban will mean that any member of staff caught smoking while on duty could face disciplinary action.
Heatherwood Hospital's assistant general manager, Jacqueline Clarke, said the new policy would be enforced, but there would not be anti-smoking patrols.
Only a few patients will be allowed to smoke while in hospital if their doctor gives the go-head.
This could apply to long-term or terminally ill patients.
Dr Cobb said that each hospital in East Berkshire would provide staff who want to give up smoking with materials and support.
Extract Bracknell Times 03/05/1990

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Adam McKinley Views Letters Page

I agree with MP John Redwood that the idea of a super hospital at Winnersh, or anywhere else in Berkshire, is "bonkers."
But no more daft than closing beds at the Royal Berks and Battle Hospitals in Reading and transferring facilities from Heatherwood to Wexham Park.
The closing of 30 beds to save £400,000 prolonged the agony of all those on our patch awaiting operations. Learned surgeons are pleading in vain for more beds, not fewer.
Hundreds of people, most of them elderly, are waiting for eye operations and hip replacements, as well as cancer care surgery, while the government squeezes the Health Authorities into further economies.
When MP John slams Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke about the "bonkers" idea, as he has promised, would it not make sense for him also to tell Mr Clarke to stop destroying the Health Service in Berkshire by imposing savage economy cuts that can only be implemented at the expense of even longer waiting lists for surgery?
Many people also die of hopelessness on waiting lists that suffer mostly from political hypocrisy.
Extract Bracknell Wokingham Times 10/05/1990

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Public to Get Say on Hospital Shake-up Plans

by Jim Stevens
A public meeting to discuss the future of Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital is to be held in Bracknell.
The Community Health Council has provisionally arranged for a public meeting at the 1,000 seater Kerith Centre on Wednesday May 16.
Health bosses will present their controversial proposals to move the special baby care and obstetric units from Heatherwood Hospital to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.
CHC secretary Pam Whittle said: "We will listen to their views so that we can take them on board early on."
The East Berkshire Health Authority is expected to release its consultation document on the proposals for hospital services sometime this week.
District general manager David Treloar and district medical officer and director of planning and information Dr Jeremy Cobb will address the meeting and answer questions afterwards.
Health authority spokesman Phil Jacques said: "Last summer we promised as soon as we had plans formulated for the future of hospital services in the Bracknell area we would hold a public meeting." The consultation document will be available to the public for three months when it is published this week.
Extract Bracknell Times 10/05/1990

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Threat To Care For Elderly Mentally Ill

By Simon Miller
THE elderly mentally ill are feeling the squeeze in East Berkshire as in-patient care comes under increasing pressure.
The numbers of elderly mentally ill (EMI) mean hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to accept severe cases like Alzheimer's Disease. The health authority has received three complaints from MPs about lack of facilities for those suffering from the illness.
Brian Mackness, health authority spokesman, confirmed in-patient beds for EMI are under pressure at both Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals.
But, Mr Mackness stressed there is no increase in mental illness in the elderly. He said: "There are more elderly in the district now and so there are more instances of mental illness.
"We have lots of in-patient beds at both Heatherwood Wexham Park Hospitals but given the increase in mentally ill old people, they are under pressure."
Tomorrow health authority members will also address complaints ranging from clinical judgement to delays in emergency treatment.
Phil Jacques, health authority officer, says in his report: "Once again it will be seen that complaints are received on a wide variety of subjects. "One trend that should be noted, however, is the small trickle of complaints about the lack of facilities for patients with Alzheimer's Disease."
Overall a total of 47 were complaints received on 73 different subjects against practices at the authority's four hospitals. Patient complaints covered nine instances of clinical judgement against staff Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot from January to March this year.
But most centred on out-patient services and discharge arrangements at both Heatherwood and King Edward VII in Windsor.
On Heatherwood and King Edward VII Hospitals, Mr Jacques adds: The number relating to out-patients was greater than the number for in-patient services.
"The unit is already committed to reviewing all out-patient services within the unit by the end of May 1990."
Other grievances to be discussed, are staff attitudes, appointments, nursing services, cancelled admissions and lack of information to patients.
Extract Evening Post 15/05/1990

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Marathon Man Defies Doctor to Raise Cash

A man who was advised not to run marathons by his doctor in 1982 has just completed his sixth, raising £1,500 for Heatherwood Hospital.
The money raised by 60-year-old Ronald Swan is being given to the hospital's new medical training centre to pay for an x-ray viewer.
It is an appropriate cause for Mr Swan, of Armitage Court, Sunninghill, who in 1982 had surgery on his knee and although told he could still run was advised not to go in for marathons.
Now eight years later after five London marathons and an American marathon Mr Swan says he is probably going to take the advice.
Although sponsored in early marathons for more national charities, Mr Swan decided this time to go for something more local.
He explained: "I felt it would be better to do something local that one could associate with."
His friends and colleagues at 3M in Bracknell obviously agreed with him and generously sponsored.
Of the future, Mr Swan, who trains twice a week, said: "I probably won't do any more marathons and will heed the doctor's advice and just do shorter runs. Probably!"

Extract Bracknell Times 17/05/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
Captioned; Our picture shows Ronald, foreground with, left to right, Liz McLean, Caroline Park, Peter Milledge, John Neate, Heatherwood manager, and Ann Renn.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

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Photo Article

Laing Retirement Homes' Flower Festival in Crowthorne attracted 74 visitors and raised £74 for Arthur Cheney's charity, the Heatherwood Appeal.
Laing Homes donated £1 for each visitor to the festival, which was organised in conjunction with California Ladies' Flower Club.
Arthur and his wife visited the festival at Culverwood Court, Dukes Ride, Crowthorne, and are pictured here with Laing Homes representative Kate Bradley and members of the flower club.
Extract Wokingham Times 17/05/1990

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We Must Save Heatherwood

Consultants speak out over plans
By Jim Stevens
Outspoken consultants at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital have condemned plans to transfer maternity and special baby care units to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.
During a stormy public meeting at the Kerith Centre last week a number of top Heatherwood consultants called on district health chiefs to abandon their controversial proposals.
The meeting, which was attended by more than 200 people, marked the recent opening of a three month consultation period which will decide the fate of the existing maternity and special baby care units at Heatherwood.
Health chiefs faced a stern grilling from residents and consultants anxious to know why the proposals, which have sparked uproar across the community, are necessary.
Throughout the meeting East Berkshire Health Authority was accused of failing to research the transfer and neglecting the needs of Bracknell people.
Stanley Simmons, a consultant obstetrician, claimed the quality of care would drop considerably as a result of the transfer.
To a rapturous round of applause he said: "Our own paper will show overwhelmingly the quality of care will drop considerably as a result of this move. It will be severely reduced."
He also claimed Heatherwood was set to expand even more from the growth of young mothers in Bracknell while Wexham Park remained static because of the growth of the elderly population in the Slough area.
Dr Simmons said his colleagues had not been consulted about the professional implications of the proposed transfer.
Consultant anaesthetist Joe Warren, who is also a Bracknell borough councillor, hit out at the 40 minute travelling time quoted by health chiefs from Sandhurst to Wexham Park.
He said: "I live half way between Sandhurst and Wexham Park. When I was called in an emergency on Sunday morning at 10.30 am to Wexham Park it took me 45 minutes.
"How much longer will it take for children who are seriously ill to get from Sandhurst to Wexham Park on a Sunday morning. It is not true to say the time is 40 minutes from Sandhurst to Wexham Park."
Dr Warren said Bracknell people would gravely disadvantaged by the transfer of services.
And consultant radiologist Carole Luck said the transfer of the obstetric unit to Wexham Park would lead to a decline in standards in other related units like paediatrics and gynaecology.
This would inevitably lead to their transfer along with the accident and emergency unit, she claimed.
Jane Spring, a consultant obstetrician, joined her colleagues in condemning the proposals.
She said: "There is no way we can provide for the population of Bracknell at Wexham Park."
Earlier in the meeting district general manager David Treloar explained the problems facing the health authority.
He said: "I see no evidence of a move away from concentration. Wherever you look acute services are being concentrated."
He added: "We have to consider for the future and whether over the next five to ten years we should continue, in the face of change, relying upon the good will staff currently show in giving an excellent service."
Mr Treloar also highlighted the rising expectations of health care and the limited scope for increasing the authority's budget.
But he emphasised it was not inevitable the paediatric gynaecology units would be transferred to Wexham Park.
He said: "I hope there are ways in which general paediatric care and gynaecology can be sustained at Heatherwood." The Community Health Council will make its decision on the proposals in July, after meeting with hospital consultants.
And in September the proposals will come back before the health authority If the CHC continues to condemn the proposals the final decision could be left in the hands of health secretary Kenneth Clarke.
Health campaigners have collected more than 75,000 signatures from people opposed to the transfer of acute services from Heatherwood to Wexham Park.
Extract Bracknell Wokingham Times 24/05/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The picture captioned:Hundreds attended the opening of a three month consultation into plans for Heatherwood
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

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Save The Sick From Market Forces Plan

The public meeting of May 16 with the East Berks Health Authority representatives, called by the Community Health Council, confirmed yet again where the problems and the issues of Heatherwood Hospital really originate from.
It is patently obvious that there is no proper or real cohesion between the Bureaucrats attempting to run our Health Service and the people on the ground actually doing the job.
Medical staff are not being heard properly on the important changes being proposed.
The statements offered at this meeting by such people as Mr Simmonds and Dr J Warren clearly indicate that the current proposals to transfer two departments in maternity to Wexham Park would be detrimental to patients and would no doubt be instrumental in other departments, including the A and E Casualty, eventually going to Wexham Park as well.
'Oh yes, they say, the public will be consulted before any final decision was made But I had the impression that deep down, the decision has already been made on grounds of staffing problems and the overall need of rationalisation.
When I asked about the question of costing, the answer was that finance was not the real problem. Well, I have heard this before and I am not at all convinced.
I am of the opinion that the bureaucrats are determined to change the whole function of Heatherwood by using Wexham Park or even Frimley Park as the main hospital for South East Berkshire regardless of what risk, inconvenience, cost or family visiting facilities are required by the people in this area.
How many more times are we to hear Mr Treloar and Dr Cobb attempting to say that the travel distance and time taken is irrelevant between Bracknell and Wexham Personally, I think the answer can only be resolved come the next general election.
Unfortunately the damage will have been done by then. The market forces philosophy for the Health Service will be an absolute disaster.
WJR Hignell, St Andrews, Home Farm, Bracknell.
Extract Bracknell Wokingham Times 31/05/1990

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Adam McKinley Views Letter's Page

There are now less than two months left in which to save Heatherwood Hospital's maternity and baby care units.
There must be no easing up in the campaign to stop district health chiefs from transferring the units to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.
Over 75,000 signatures have been affixed to a petition.
2.9 To say there is hell to pay among the Bracknell and Ascot mums and dads is putting it mildly. There is also a solid block of top medical men and women opposing the move.
Anaesthetist Joe Warren, who is a Bracknell Forest Borough councillor with the added advantage of knowing what he is talking about, is a leading opponent of the move. He has poured scorn on East Berks Health officials' claim that Wexham Park is only a 40-minute ambulance ride from any part of Heatherwood's catchment area. Dr. Warren, who lives between Sandhurst and Wexham Park, says that when he was called out at 10:30 on a recent Sunday morning emergency, it took him 45 minutes to get to the Slough hospital.
But more important than anything else is the convenience of Heatherwood to expectant Mums, as well as the quality of care the hospital provides. Stanley Simmons, a prominent consultant obstetrician, is quite adamant that the standard of care will drop if the transfer goes through. Heatherwood, he argues, will expand from the rising numbers of young mothers in Bracknell.
Wexham Park will remain static because of the growth in the number of elderly in the Slough area.
Another consultant obstetrician, Jane Spring, added: "There is no way we can provide for the population of Bracknell at Wexham Park".
David Treloar, the authority's district general manager, says it is "not inevitable" that the paediatric and gynaecology units will be transferred to Wexham Park.
With that crumb of comfort to go on, the health campaigners must keep the pressure on.
The Community Health Council meet in July to make their decision. Before that there will be a show down with hospital consultants.
My guess is that the big guns of the professionals, backed by the public outcry, will be too much for the CHC. If that happens then the final decision will be made by head book keeper and Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who is sure to take the inevitable "economical" way out which could well be Wexham Park.
Look for a politically packaged promise of pie in the sky before the end of the century if Mr Clarke plumps for Slough.
Extract Wokingham Times 07/06/1990

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Ascot

Newest among the activities at the Ascot Red Cross Centre based at Heatherwood Hospital is the Rupert Club.
The aim of the club is to give support to adults of all ages and at all stages of incapacity, from those needing just one walking stick to those permanently in wheelchairs. Meetings are each Wednesday from 2pm to 4.30pm.
The organiser, Mrs Margaret Haddon, explained: "We plan a wide range of activities such as table games, quizzes, arts, crafts, flower pressing and arranging sessions, a monthly speaker, discussions and afternoon tea sessions.
If there are enough volunteer drivers, Margaret plans to take members out on short outings and sightseeing trips.
She hopes that in due course a mini-bus sitting ambulance will help widen this activity.
Margaret has been a member of the Red Cross for more than five years and has wide-ranging experience in caring for handicapped adults, having been with the Leonard Cheshire organisation for nearly 10 years.
Anyone interested in joining the Ascot Red Cross Rupert Club or those wishing to know more about its activities can contact Margaret at the Ascot Red Cross Centre, Heatherwood Hospital, any Wednesday afternoon on Ascot 27377.
Extract Bracknell Times 07/06/1990

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A Drive To help Fabien

Caring ambulance workers raised £435 towards Fabien Obringer's treatment for cerebral palsy.
They presented nine-year-old Fabien with the cheque at the Royal Berkshire Ambulance Station in Bracknell last Thursday.
Fabien of Matthews green Road, Wokingham has been to Hungary's Peto Institute for treatment to help him walk and is hoping to make another trip by the end of this year.
The crew raised the money with a charity bed push from Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot to Bracknell Ambulance Station.
Ambulance staff treated Fabien to a drive around the grounds in an ambulance and gave him a go at turning on the sirens.
Nigel Thomas, the ambulance care assistant who organised the event, said: "We owe it to the people of Bracknell for their response to the event. We wanted to do it for a local charity."
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 07/06/1990

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by three photos.
The picture captioned:Fabien with crew member Frank Gatfield at the wheel of an ambulance
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

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Riders Jump To It In The Fight Against Cancer

A major appeal has been launched in a bid to raise £100,000 to help cancer sufferers in the Thames Valley.
Round Table groups across the region have joined forces to stage a special event, called the Summer Spectacular, next month.
Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital will be among those to benefit from the appeal. The event, at the Silver Ring. Ascot Racecourse, on July 8, will feature a show jumping contest, with top-name riders including Robert Smith and Graham Fletcher, and other events.
Show business stars and sporting celebrities have been invited along to add their support to the appeal.
Cash raised will be given to Berkshire hospitals. It will be used to help provide specialist cancer care units, such as the well known Macmillan units and day care centres. The West Berkshire Macmillan Cancer Care Appeal will receive a boost towards its completion.
And East Berkshire's three main hospitals, Heatherwood at Ascot, King Edward VII at Windsor and Wexham Park at Slough, will also share in the proceeds Funds will be used to provide the three hospitals with new equipment which will help doctors diagnose and treat hidden cancers.
David Chard, area Round Table chairman, said: "Unfortunately cancer is an illness that can affect so many people.
"But our show at the Silver Ring is an opportunity for Round Table and everyone else in the community to help those who are suffering
Extract Evening Post 07/06/1990

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Plan Is Slammed as Baby Factory Farm

Plans to centralise maternity services in parts of South Bucks have met with spirited opposition.
One South Bucks councillor has described the proposal, By East Berks Health Authority, as amounting to "factory farming" and the community health council has added its disapproval to the idea. The scheme involves centralising maternity services at Wexham Park Hospital, pushing the number of births there from 2,700 a year to 5,000.
Women in Bracknell and Windsor will be forced to use Wexham Park instead of the present service at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot. But when members of South Bucks Council's environmental control committee discussed the plan last week, they said they were concerned that the added influx will be a severe blow to hospital care and will create parking problems.
Cllr Elizabeth Smith said: "We are human beings and deserve hospital care. We are getting rid of factory farming for chickens and putting mothers and babies in them." Health Authority spokesman, Phil Jacques, said the proposal had been in the pipeline for about a year and added: "Maternity services are the most expensive. To provide these on two sites is an incredible cost.
"We are not yet in a position where we can talk with any degree of authority about beds, what we are talking about is the feasibility of combining the services."
The proposal has also came under fire from East Berks Community Health Council.
Health council secretary Pam Whittle said after the meeting: "We have yet to discuss what our official response I will be but I can say that the council has consistently opposed the centralisation of maternity services."
Extract Buckinghamshire Advertiser 13/06/1990

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Hospital Chiefs May Go It Alone

Bosses at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital may opt out of direct health authority control and run their own budgets.
Staff at Heatherwood gave their own overwhelming support to the dramatic new proposals at a recent open meeting.
General manager John Neate is due to meet the hospital's medical staff committee next Monday to discuss the far-reaching plans.
And he is determined to express an interest in opting-out, subject to these discussions and final talks with East Berkshire health chiefs.
If the hospital opted out, it would have greater freedom to dictate the range of services on offer.
Last week Slough's Wexham Park hospital said it was probing the possibility of taking up "Trust" status.
The new National Health Service Trust status is an option contained in Government guidelines for making the health service more efficient.
It means a specially appointed board has direct control of all budgets.
It would be able to borrow money for new projects for the first time, and pay deals would not have to go through national bodies like the Whitley Council Heatherwood general manager John Neate believes there are a number of advantages in op out.
He said: "We will have a greater degree of freedom to determine the range of services we want to offer compared with the present directly managed arrangements.
"There is also freedom locally to negotiate terms and conditions in order to be able to compete more effectively in the market place."
Mr Neate said the hospital was anxious to explore what self-governing status would mean before going forward with definite proposals.
He added: "The concern at King Edward V11 and Heatherwood is to provide the best service we can to the south of the district and not to take a decision to pass down the road unless we are satisfied that it is going to be in the best interests of local people."
The earliest date Heatherwood could chose to opt out is April 1992, long after the proposed transfer of its maternity unit to Wexham Park
Heatherwood union representative John McDougall said he was only in favour of opting out if the doomed maternity unit was maintained at the hospital.
He said: "It can only be a realistic option if all the services are maintained, even expanded, and stay open.
I could not see a future in opting out if special baby care, paediatrics, obstetrics, and accident and emergency have gone."
Extract Bracknell Times 21/06/1990

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Union Boss Warns Of Bed Cuts

A Heatherwood Hospital union leader fears vital beds will be lost due to services being moved to Wexham Park Hospital.
John McDougall believes the health authority wants cut down on beds at the slough hospital if proposals to transfer the special baby care, obstetrics and gynaecology units are agreed. The shop steward is asking local people to lobby the health authority to abandon the proposals
He said: "If people are concerned, there is another meeting of the Community Health Council at the beginning of next month.
"A further 22 beds will go. It is up to the community to do something about it."
If the CHC reject he health authority proposals the decision will be left in the hands of health minister Kenneth Clarke.
Mr McDougall said he received the information concerning the cut in beds from a source close to the health authority.
East Berkshire Labour Party is urging Bracknell people to write objections.
In an open letter, it says: "The only way to save Heatherwood is for every one to make their feelings known to the health authority and persuade its members to reject this crazy plan."
The health authority was unavailable for Comment
Extract Bracknell Times 21/06/1990

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Watchdog Tells Heatherwood Bosses to Stop Wexham Move

Health bosses are to be told do an about turn on proposals to move services from Heatherwood Hospital to Slough's Wexham Park.
And if they don't, the decision will be left to Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke.
East Berkshire's health watchdog, the Community Health Council, called on its members this week to vote against the transfer of services to Slough's Wexham Park Hospital.
If the health authority fails to abandon the controversial proposals and the CHC sticks to its guns the ultimate decision will be left with Mr Clarke.
The CHC will meet on July 3 to consider the proposals to transfer the maternity and special baby care units to Wexham Park.
But in a recommended response published last week officers at the CHC say the proposals should be rejected.
The response condemns the health authority's consultation paper on the proposals, branding it "superficial and poorly presented."
It goes on to outline the transport problems for Bracknell people travelling to Slough and defends the need to maternity services as local as possible, within easy access of the public.
The response also questions the ability of Wexham Park to deal with all the births in the district.
It states: "In the year 1989-90 the average number of occupied maternity beds within the district was 67.92. Wexham has 55 available beds." The transfer of services would also lead to an increase in home deliveries in the area, says the CHC. An improved obstetric and paediatric emergency flying squad' would be needed to support this.
The CHC believe insufficient thought has been given to the future of paediatric services, which must remain as near home as possible.
In conclusion the report claims it is inappropriate to be considering planning changes when both Heatherwood and Wexham Park are expressing an interest in adopting NHS Trust status.
And it calls for the re-examination of plans for a Mid Berkshire Hospital. an idea backed by many consultants and health campaigners Consultant anaesthetist Joe Warren, who is also a Bracknell borough councillor, said: "I think the CHC has adopted a realistic and sensitive line."
He said the views were totally in line with those of hospital consultants and people living in the south of the district.
Extract Bracknell Times 28/06/1990

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£30,000 is Not Enough

Consultants Say More Is Needed for New Unit
A cash boost of £30,000 to help set up a new high dependency unit at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital is useless without further backing, claim consultants.
East Berkshire health chiefs claim to have paved the way for a new high dependency unit at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital with the money.
But consultants at Heatherwood say they need £100,00 to set up the unit and a further £100,00 a year to keep it going.Consultant anaesthetist and Bracknell borough councillor, Joe Warren, said: "The £30,000 is a step towards the £100,000 we need. But unless there is any indication where the other part of the money is, it is useless." He added: "Even having created a high dependency unit we need £100,000 to keep it going."
Dr Warren said the unit was a very important facility for the district which would enhance the intensive therapy unit at Wexham Park He said: "The unit is very important if we do not want to run a lumps and bumps hospital." "There are problems in carrying out proper surgery and medical care where there are no facilities of this kind." News of the valuable cash injection was unveiled at last week's meeting of the health authority.
Health authority spokesman Phil Jacques said: "It is an absolutely essential part of our plans for Heatherwood Hospital. "It has been talked of for some time and there are obviously tremendous advantages of such a unit."
He added: "At the moment patients are taken to whatever ward seems appropriate." "The new unit will act as a general back-up." The unit will take patients who are seriously ill but do not need an intensive care unit.
This would include patients with problems during surgery and those taken to Heatherwood's casualty unit. A further £80,000 was set aside at last week's meeting to improve fire precautions at the Ascot Hospital.
District press officer Brian Mackness said: "It is part of a long term programme we have for upgrading and improving procedures across the district. It consists of smoke alarms and detectors and improved alarm equipment generally.
In some cases we have got to improve the structure of a building." This is the first time Heatherwood Hospital has benefitted from the resources set aside to improve fire precautions. The work will be carried out during the course of the year.
Extract Bracknell Times 28/06/1990

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The Next Meeting of

The East Berkshire Community Health Council
  will be on Tuesday July 3rd at 2.00pm Recreation Hall, Heatherwood Hospital, London Road, Ascot.
Extract Evening Post 28/06/1990

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