Regarding your front page report on Thursday, January 4, 2018, “Inadequate surgery is put in special measures”.
This has come as a shocking piece of news at the start of 2018 as I have lived in Carrington Road for 29 years and have been a long-term patient of the Pennygate Health Centre for most of that time.
Like so many people within the community I am very concerned about the centre being rated as inadequate by The Care Quality Commission inspectors and what must be going through peoples minds as what to do next?
I have the greatest repect for Dr Azmeena Nathu, the nurses and all the staff that work at the centre in Pennygate. I know the doctor works long hours like so many of our valued NHS staff up and down the country.
The report refers to over 3,000 patients, but I would imagine the figure would be closer to 4,000 now because of the increase in the local population. With so few comment cards filled in it must be difficult to judge the views of almost 4,000 patients.
The Health Centre provides a valued service to the local area, where would we be without it in the worst case? If people moved from one practice to another, this would only have an impact on the few facilities we do have.
Living in a deprived area of Spalding I would be wanting to know the source of the problem here and what can be done to help.
As this current government continue to be in denial about the crisis in our NHS, local services are bound to feel the impact.
NHS England figures for October 2016 had 3.9 million people waiting for non-urgent operations, the highest level recorded since December 2007.
Now NHS bosses have divided the country into geographical areas called STP (Sustainability & Transformation Plans) footprints. This device will only be used to further cut and privatise services to implement £20 billion of so called efficiency savings by 2020.It is totally unfair to ask NHS staff to deliver more and provide better services with less money and resources.
It is time this cruel attack was stopped by giving the NHS proper funding and give services like the Pennygate Health Centre time to care, not time to cut.
Rodney Sadd (United Union Delegate)
Carrington Road
Spalding
