Some months ago on a visit to my home village of Charlwood, I was able to browse varied displays about local history in the parish hall. There were many fascinating items including records from Charlwood Cottage Hospital, built in 1872. The records showed a lot of successful outcomes for patients and some less successful in-patient episodes. For many of us today, it might seem remarkable that a village like Charlwood had its own hospital, but it was not so unusual.
I can remember Horley having a cottage hospital and Smallfield having its own hospital into the early 1980s. The latter site is now all residential development. My memory of Smallfield remains quite vivid as I was admitted there in early 1981 for apparently routine operations on in-grown toenails. Amazing as it might seem, I remained there for 11 nights. I cannot recall the complications that arose but a stay of that length would be inconceivable now, even though I had both of them done.
Over the years, we have seen the closure of many local hospitals as it has made clinical sense to centralise certain capabilities to fit an appropriate catchment area. We have seen accident and emergency, and maternity services leaveCrawleyHospital. The basic premise of ensuring the viability and safety of services by putting them in the right place is surely sound, and we also need to take into account real patient experiences in terms of customer service.
There have been improvements in our hospital services but it remains inescapable that some experiences for patients are unsatisfactory. Accounts of individual visits to hospitals continue to show some cases with extreme waiting times for example. Against that background, it is appropriate to consider how new provision could contribute to a continued rise in overall standards.
This week, Crawley Council is holding a seminar for its elected members on the West Sussex Biocity pre-feasibilty study. As well as an acute care hospital, with full NHS access, this project would deliver biomedical research and development; strong links to higher education, and housing, including for key workers.
I hope that colleagues will agree that this is an exciting potential offer forCrawley. The question is of course how we move forward and I believe that we need to vigorously seek out funding for further work. Options here include the recently-announced RGF (Regional Growth Fund) which we might seek to access through the new Coast to Capital LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership). As with any project of this kind, the key to success will be partnership, and the availability of new venture capital should improve with continued economic recovery.
In any event, it is surely right to try and improve the choice and quality of the healthcare offer for Crawley people.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
25th January 2011