I wonder if your correspondents in favour of rebuilding the N&N Hospital on its present restricted site have ever lived in a house having a new kitchen fitted, or a conservatory added, or even being redecorated. Do I need to write more?
The people of N&N and the nursing and medical staff need an up to date hospital that will meet our needs into the next century. Trying to bolt on more bits and pieces to a state of "Victorian" art hospital is not the answer.
We also need rapid access to excellent accident and emergency facilities that do not require ambulances to thread their way through rush hour traffic. The Colney site has the potentila to accommodate helicopter transfers in the future.
Organising a centre for the treatment of minor injuries in the city centre is another matter altogether and it should be possible to provide that without too many problems.
Mr SM Beare
Wacton
Eastern Daily Press
Getting the Best of Both Worlds
Councillor Beare makes some very worthwhile comments in her letter (EDP, July 1) with regard to a new hospital for N&N, in particular to helicopter transfers and the problems posed by ambulances having to go through rush hour traffic.
I am reminded of the debate I witnessed two years ago involving the closure of an emergency room in Montreal, Canada.
Whilst it makes perfect sense to have an out of town, purpose built hospital with a state of the art accident and emergency department, a small minor injuries unit could be based in the centre of Norwich to serve that area, freeing the accident and emergency department at Colney to deal with life and death cases.
John Cowan
Barnham Broom
Eastern Daily Press
Hospital Human Chain Proved Public Passion
I would like to thank the many people who turned out to help form the human chain round the N&N hospital.
The response was quite amazing and shows again how passionate wa all are about our hospital in the city. I would also like to express my appreciation for all the telephone messages of support and encouragement since the event was advertised.
Our local MPs were conspicuously absent on Saturday, and if they intend to continue to ride roughshod over the feelings of their constituuents they surely do so at their peril.
Needless to say, the fight goes on. We should all bombard the Minister of State for Health, Alan Milburn with letters till we get the promised review.
Amanda Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 1997
Wrong Again?
Re: The article in the Evening News recently headed "The Flyover - In the Face of Public Opinion". Is history now repeating itself?
And in 25 years time will you be saying the same things about the new hospital at Colney?
"It was the city's second big mistake with disregard to public opinion".
Mrs Barbara Daniels
Norwich
Eastern Evening News
Green Site Just Right for Patients
Michael Innes of Thorpe does not want a new hospital at Colney. Can he explain what he means by being out of line with modern thinking and that public demand is against it?
I say public demand is in favour of the hospital because it would be so much better to look out on green fields than rooftops, less noise and easy parking.
Perhaps it should have been built at Thorpe.
Thomas Hammond
Wymondham
Eastern Daily Press
Surgery Trip to Colney?
If the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is determined to force the new hospital to be built at Colney - against the wishes of the people of Norfolk & Norwich - then perhaps he would consider comimg to the Colney site to hold his next surgery and see how many people turned out to listen to him.
Elizabeth Wallace
Colton
Eastern Daily Press
Accessible Hospital Site is Only Answer
Norwich South voters should not imagine for a minute that Messers MacGregor and Khanbhai really believe that a direct link road between the southern bypass and a hospital at Colney is feasible.
Mr MacGregor has known this since he was told so in a letter from the Chief Planning Officer of South Norfolk District Council back in December 1995.
The only way to provide proper access for people is to build the hospital on an accessible site, which thankfully we already have in the city centre.
Readers wanting to know more about this have the opportunity to attend a public meeting at Blackfriars Hall on Friday, April 25th at 8pm.
M Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News
Hospital Opportunity Missed
So we are having "private funding" for this grand new hospital. Does this mean some magnanimous person (or persons) is giving us this large sum? Or will Norfolk & Norwich taxpayers have to fork out a massive tax to pay the interest?
We had the potential space by our hospital for glorious new departments. This would have meant just generous compensation for a few properties nearby - we should all have been happier. And after four years, how many extra millions?
How very easy to spend other people's money. and have little care for friends without a car to visit patients.
Mrs Emma Bingham
New Costessey
Eastern Daily Press
Hard Work and Money Will be Thrown Away
Many of the facilities and much of the equipment at the N&N and West Norwich Hospitals were paid for by the efforts of local charities and voluntary organisations.
These will be shut down and scrapped if the new hospital goes ahead, so all the hard work and money raised will be thrown away.
R Cains Norwich
Eastern Evening News
Hats Off to Hospital Care
Having recently been admitted to the N&N Hospitall, I must praise the care and treatment I received. I cannot thank enough the doctors, nurses and all other staff on Depham and Diss Wards.
I could not have had better care. Why they want to close this hospital is beyond me.
Mrs Doreen Walters
Bunwell
Eastern Evening News
You Missed Point, Jill
Jill Roshier misses my point by stating (May 8th) that a cyclist could just as easily fall off a bike at Colney as in the city.
More cycling is done in the city than at Colney (or at least until the hospital is built there!).
If every person with a minor injury but needing hospital treatment could only get there by ambulance this would soon clog up the ambulance service, who, and this is my main point, would be better employed on real emergencies.
Access to the new hospital for those without cars is a key consideration for Norfolk folk, not one that should be treated lightly.
Les Hopkins
Norwich
Eastern Evening News
Losing a Leg
A doctor had a patient needing a leg operation, but found it more convenient just to amputate below the knee.
The patient reluctantly agreed. When the doctor started saying the whole leg had to come off, the patient got a second opnion and discovered the truth, the leg could be saved.
The patient sensibley changed their doctor only to be told that since the previous doctor had arranged the funding for the amputation and artificial leg, there was no option but to lose the leg!
Andy Jones
Norwich City Councillor
Eastern Evening News
The Best of Both Worlds
So, our new Labour MP for Norwich South begins to admit that there might be a need for some healthcare services to remain in the city centre, but does his head rule his heart, or the other way round I wonder?
No one in Norwich with any knowledge of the situation wants the N&N and the West Norwich Hospitals to close, which brings me to the thought that would it be possible to have our cake and eat it too?
We are locked into this PFI arrangement over the building and running of the new hospital at Colney.
True there are advantages, but an enormous amount of money has been and continues to be spent on the existing facilities in the city centre.
The fracture clinic, A&E and Xray departments for example,are positively plush but functional in a way that no private hospital could match.
Car parking could easily be tripled by building a basement, ground and first floor multi-storey on the existing site which could incorporate seatring and landscaping for patients and visitors to enjoy.
Having said that, a state of the art hospital on a greenfield site close to Norwich would have much to offer and might be able to provide a specialist service to the whole of East Anglia both for the public and the private sectors.
I think it would also be a good idea to build a permanent version of the now demolished Yare Clinic psychiatric unit on the site as well, so that psychiatric patients with physical problems can be treated and cared for properly by a mix of general and psyche nurses instead of the current somewhat haphazzard arrangement for psychiatric inpatients.
Finally would it be possible to reform what used to be called the United Norwich Hospitals into United Norfolk Hospitals - a powerful integrated buying consortium stretching from Kings Lynn to Great Yarmouth which would save on management and supply costs and release more funds for the caring professions from cleaners to consultants.
At the end of the day it's the people who give of themselves to their vocation in life who are most important.
Now that we have a new government, let's try and get back some of the camaraderie which existed in the public services until the demands of "efficiency" and "cost effectiveness" eroded the sense of fraternity which had grown up over the years.
Jeremy Crisp
Norwich
Eastern Evening News
Better Option for Hospital
Recently Michael Innes and myself met officials at the Department of Health to discuss the hospital issue, where we gained a somewhat different picture of the department's reasoning in favour of Colney.
Firstly, a major factor is the preference of private finance for green-field sites involving a single, shorter and therefore cheaper building phase. This factor dovetails with the Department's objective to secure a new hospital as quickly as possible.
Secondly, whilst the level of compensation payabel in the event of a broken contract is a major factor, it is not the overriding one.
The department does not know how much compensation would be incurred, but reckoned it would be in the region of tens of millions. This is a far cry from the hundreds of millions which the hospital trust has led people to believe.
As we pointed out, a more cost effective alternative would be to renegotiate the contract with the present contractors in favour of redeveloping the present site.
Rebuilding would provide greater accommodation than at Colney at a saving of £100 million and would cary none of the huge social, economic and environmental costs attached to an out of town location.
The officials appeared genuinely interested in the KOHIN alternative and have gone away to evaluate its financial cost compared to that of Colney.
Denise Carlo
Norwich
Eastern Daily Press
Looking Forward to Moving to Colney Site
You asked for people in the photograph of prize winning nurses in the EDP of June 26th to come forward and identify themselves.
I stand on the far left as a second year student nurse and still ahve the prizes awarded for surgery and dietetics. I qualified in 1962 and have continued in part and full time capacity since.
Having married in 1966 and having had a daughter and son, I now work as sister in charge of the theatres in the day procedure unit at the N&N Hospital where there is strong support from the overwhelming majority of my colleagues for the dec
velopment of the new hospital at Colney.
Medical and nursing practice has changed out of all recognition since 1961, the date of your photograph.
To suggest that these changes can be fully implemented on the present N&N site is simply to display an ignorance of whay is involved.
In my own area of day surgery, high quality care depends on having - in an integral unit - operating theatres associated with the wards and other facilities required for day surgery.
The Athur South Day Procedure Unit has gained international recognition but there is potential to enable three times as many patients to enjoy the benefits that it currently offers.
Already we are enthusiastically planning for this in the new hospital where improved access and parking (I speak as one who has to use the N&N site every working day!) in addition to the enlarged, dedicated day surgery facility will benefit our patients from Norfolk as well as Norwich.
Jane Knudsen
Cringleford
Eastern Daily Press