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Yes, we do need a new hospital; I am not disagreeing with that. However, it would take me all day to voice the reasons for my unhappiness about your proposals for the new hospital. Given how much time I have put into "Let's have your opinion" projects before, only to come to the realisation that the meetings and workshops were sops, I won't waste my time here with detail. I'm sure the subjects have been touched on by Friends of the New Hospital group and others. I am equally sure many of them will have been ignored.
I will make a few observations, however.
I feel absolutely sick when I think of the enormous sum of money you are planning to borrow when even basic questions have not been answered.
In no particular order:
- Why were the people chosen to be on the citizen's panel only drawn from those who had not expressed an opinion before?
- Why, when possible sites were first compared and contrasted, were they not analysed using the same criteria and weighting for each site? If the report I saw from the hospital team had been produced by a GCSE student back when I was teaching, I'd have returned it and demanded a higher standard.
- Why have Scrutiny had to wait so long for answers to their questions?
- Why are you proposing to spend so much on a building that does not have to be world- class? Why are you not spending less on a hospital that will still meet our health criteria?
- Why are we not educating people from primary school age to the elderly on ways to stay out of hospital? There are so many strategies, many of which are cheap, easy and effective, and so few are being looked at, never mind implemented.
- Why are the EIA and HIA so poor?
I could go on but I feel my voice is like to so many others who don't agree with what you're proposing - just a vibration in the wind, and not heard because you have expensive noise- cancelling headphones on.
After years of obfuscation around building a new hospital, this project is being railroaded through. Will you be able to look your grandchildren in the eye and say how proud you are? How will you explain to them how much we have to pay when there are other ways to approach the issue?
I feel let down and disappointed by all who have pushed this ill-conceived idea and its associated problems through.
As for all the money and time that have already been wasted - well, I just want to cry. Shame on you all.
Jacqui Carrel