Letters 1999

KOHIN

Keep Our Hospital in Norwich

Letters - what people write to the papers - 1999

1996 1997 1998 1999

Why the rush to start this work?
Even as I write this letter, dozens of trees are being chopped down along the Watton Road in the first stage of the roadworks of the new hospital.
Why is this scheme being rushed ahead when the meeting between the roads minister and the local MPs is only days away?
If logic and common sense mean anything the outcome will be an access to the bypass.
I have received many messages of support following your article.
Some people said that the extensive roadworks, mentioned in recent press reports, will surely solve the hospital's traffic problems.
Unfortunately that will not be the case.
The facts are these. In October last year, a report was produced by an international firm of consultants examining the existing plans for access to the new hospital.
The analysis took into account developments that have received planning permission since the hospital was approved.
The study showed that at peak times the only access road to the hospital, the Watton Road, would suffer severe traffic congestion affecting all road users, including emergency services.
The study predicted queues in the morning in excess of four kilometres long and delays in excess of 30 minutes for traffic from the west and queues extending one and a half kilometres eastwards of the entrance to University Drive and delays of more than 20 minutes for vehicles from the Norwich direction.
Similar congestion would occur at the evening peak period.
The essential point is this horrendous prediction takes into account all the road improvement plans included in the development plan for the new hospital.
Worse still, it is a best case scenario as the analysis assumes that ther has been no increase in background traffic since 1996!
In fact, traffic volumes have increased by some 8%.
The report also stated that an access to the southern bypass would mean that the massive road scheme for the Colney Lane junction with the Watton Road could be greatly scaled down.
People may question the solution offered in the report but I am aware of no denial by planners of the study's analysis of the hospital traffic situation.
All work round the Colney Lane junction should stop immediately.
The millions of pounds earmarked in the current plan would cover the costs of an access scheme from the bypass.
The hospital and Norwich Research Park could have a first-class access and users of Watton Road would not have to suffer months of roadworks.
Although trees have been chopped down there is still time to stop a discredited road scheme being implemented further.
Dr Graham Martin
Chairman Colney Parish Meeting
Eastern Evening News 13th January 1999

Please don't deny us one small opportunity to say "We told you so!" The spectacle of our rulers squabbling over access to the hospital at Colney would be ludicrous if it were not so sad.
You are right when you say that the hospital at Colney is unstoppable. You are wrong when you say that there is little to be gained from revisiting the issues. They concern the manner in which we are governed.
South Norfolk Council granted planning permission for a hospital with inadequate access, too few beds and no accommodation for resident staff. They now have to yield to every demand. "Let us get the hospital built and sort out the problems later". What sort of planning is that?
The Povall Worthington report is crucial. It has been "mislaid". The proposition that the St Stephen's site is too small is based upon it. Where is it? Have you seen it? Has the South Norfolk Council seen it? Has anyone seen it? Does it exist? There is evidence (Eastern Evening News 24 April 1997) that it recommended that the St Stephen's site could be redevoloped for a hospital of Colney dimensions. Can we see it now please?
Who briefed the Chief Planning Officer of South Norfolk Council "to do everything possible to secure approval of the hospital proposal on the Colney site"?
Did the Minister for the Environment mean it when he said "The proper place for hospitals is in city centres"? Why did he not act upon his convictions?
What steps did the Community Health Council take to ascertain their public's views before throwing in its hand for Colney? For that matter did anyone respect public opinion when it was expressed? Did anyone take any serious steps to discover what it was?
What of the dithering of the Norwich City Council and the Planning and Transportation Committee at Norfolk County Council?
And then there is the question of the PFI........
There is plenty to talk about and much to be gained by talking in the interests of "Open Government". Sweeping it under the carpet is not an option.
Dr Geoff Clayton
Eastern Evening News 14th January 1999

Most of the public will not be surprised to learn there will not be enough beds at the new hospital.
We said all along it would not be large enough. We dread the day the Colney Hospital opens. We wanted the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital to stay; it is easier to get to and a wonderful hospital.
Heather Copeman
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th January 1999

Malcom Stamp's comment that "we now need to start deciding bed numbers" (Evening News 4/1/99) is unbelievable.
He bulldozed through a Ł214 million hospital, which is inadequate and will close a hospital with 50 per cent more beds.
Who could have confidence in our NHS trust's competence?
I asked Robin Pooley in this paper, on his appointment as trust chairman, to justify bed numbers - but he resigned without answering.
Is this bed crisis the reason for no reply?
I also asked questions on whether staff numbers reduce in proportion to bed numbers, and if existing staff would have to compete for their jobs with the many applicants for work at Colney?
Would the Unison trade union please answer this publicly, if management will not?
What seems clear is that Colney should become Norwich's first-line hospital and the larger Norfolk & Norwich Hospital the general overflow for the region's increasingly serious bed shortage.
What better use is there for these 1,200 ready beds in this efficient hospital?
It is no longer "state-of-the-art" but could take patients for treatment and nursing who no longer require the expertise of top staff and equipment.
At this time of worsening NHS crisis, it is insane to close these 1,200 beds when people are denied even emergency treatment and sentenced to lying in hospital corridors elsewhere for the foreseeable future.
Roy Hansell
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th January 1999

Can anyone figure it out? One comes across some surprising numbers in your paper. The latest to catch my eye is the report that the planned number of cases for the new hospital at Colney is 81,703.
The surprising thing is that this is a prime number, ie no whole number divides exactly into it apart from one and itself.
How did Malcolm Stamp get this figure of 81,703? It cannot have been by multiplying the figure for a shorter period; it could be by adding various categories of patients provided they had no common factor (numerical not medical).
You report that he thinks the caseload is likely to be over 92,000 this year and that the caseload for the new hospital is likely to be increased by between 12,000 and 15,000; would a list of primes between 93,703 and 96,703 be of help to him?
Perhaps local school could produce such a list or is something as useful as that not on the National Curriculum?
RS Rathbone
Elm Grove Lane, Norwich
Eastern Daily Press 22nd January 1999

Questions raised on new hospital
I have read with a great deal of interest the various letters regarding the access roads to the new Norfolk & Norwich hospital.
Could some councillor or official please explain to me:
1) Why this problem was not sorted out before planning consent was approved at Colney?
2) Why are the Highways Agency being so difficult about an obvious direct access from the A47 to the new hospital?
If the new hospital had been planned as a supermarket, or a hotel complex, all access roads would have been sorted out long before planning consent was approved.
When the new hospital is ready it will be used by thousands of people every week.
Please let common sense prevail and get the access roads sorted out now.
Several people were killed before a new roundabout was allowed at the Downham Market turn-off on the A47 dual carriageway, just west of Swaffham.
WE Richford
Tasburgh
Eastern Evening News 26th January 1999

Trees - the true cost of the hospital
I was horrified to read (Evening News 17 July) that four giant oil tanks are to fight their way through the trees of Norwich, armed with chainsaws to remove any tree branches that might get in the way. Given that the tanks are 7 metres high and will be mounted on low loaders, that sounds like an awful lot of trees are going to be affected. And why? Because it was "cheaper to build the tanks off site". Cheaper for whom? The shareholders of Colney Hospital plc? It is certainly not cheap for the citizens of Norwich whose trees may never recover.
I have lost track of the hundreds of mature trees which have already been hacked down to make way for the Colney hospital and its road network. Now we are faced with a six mile swathe of trees being vandalised and no one seems to question the matter. Is there no way we can protect the magnificent trees which make Norwich and its environs 'a fine city'?
Will we see the City Council and South Norfolk District Council leap to the defence of these trees and place emergency preservation orders on them? I doubt it. Contractors have only to say 'Colney Hospital' and they can do anything they like. So much for planning and consultation.
David Cannon
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 20th July 1999

The Takeheart Health Check

"It is the people's national health service and we should never forget that."

(Alan Milburn MP, Minister of State for Health, Hansard 15th May 1997)

"City centres are the places for hospitals."

(John Gummer, recently Minister for the Environment, Bristol 22nd March 1996)