TOP doctor Chris Mowatt from Redditch gives us his personal view of the state of the town’s health as he leaves for pastures new in Shropshire.
AFTER nearly six years as a consultant working in anaesthetics and intensive care I have left Worcestershire Acute Hospitals this week to move to another Trust.
Redditch is where I went to school, where my family live and a place I have loved. I did my work experience at the Alex when I was 16 and both my children were born there. When I broke my leg playing for Redditch RFC it was the Alex that looked after me. My Gran died there. The place feels so ingrained it’s like part of my DNA and I’m very sad to leave.
I can’t leave without saying something, so here goes:
To the people of Worcestershire I say – be proud of your local hospitals. We are very lucky to have first class services in the county. Don’t believe me? Contrast the mortality figures with our local ‘competitors’, look at the services we are offered – vascular surgery in particular is one of the best units in the whole UK, we perform more colorectal cancer resections than anywhere in the region and with better outcomes than many places. The grass is not always greener elsewhere.
If I lived in Redditch I know where I’d want my aneurysm dealt with or my bowel cancer sorted. I know where my Dad is having his knee replaced. We are very lucky in Worcestershire.
The engagement of the local population in reconfiguration is a good thing, and it’s not surprising that people are concerned about local services, but look wider, look at what’s happening in the rest of the country.
District general hospitals across the UK are facing an unprecedented squeeze on both manpower and resources. Things are tough and getting tougher. We also demand more of our services; the standards we require are higher.
To NHS England and the Trust Development Agency I would say: Get a grip. Someone needs to have a strategic overview of local health economies. Join the dots and make the difficult decisions. Stop talking about it, do it.
We have an ageing population with increasingly complex health needs. The figures are stupefying. At the same time social care is crumbling and massively expensive. Hospital funding is falling in real terms and innovation and efficiencies paralysed by short termism.
Add these facts up and we have a problem. A problem so big it’s like a steam roller slowly approaching all of us. Let’s acknowledge our problems and find solutions. These will inevitably cross traditional left/right political divides. And do you know what? Who cares!
A National Health Service is the most cost efficient way to maintain the health of the nation. Private health care is expensive and less good. We provide many services which have zero evidence they make us healthier or better. Are we prepared to pay for it?
As a nation we need to decide what we want the NHS to look like. We must take responsibility for it. It’s not going to be cheap and we need to talk about it.
The most beautiful thing about the NHS isn’t that is free, it’s that it gives us all a stake in each-other’s well being. It matters to us what our neighbour’s health is like. Or it should. I fear we’ve lost a bit of that and feel like it’s now an entitlement.
Good Luck for the future Worcestershire you great big beautiful thing.
Chris Mowatt FRCA FFICM
Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine
