Guest column: Hospital chiefs are feeling the heat

Last weekend's march to save the children's ward at Bassetlaw Hospital was a huge success.
Coun Simon GreavesCoun Simon Greaves
Coun Simon Greaves

Thank you to everyone that took part and helped to make it happen.

The public pressure upon local health chiefs is making its mark.

I’m in no doubt that hospital bosses expected to pat us on the head and tell us that they ‘hear our concerns’ and carry on regardless.

But things aren’t going their way.

They don’t like the fact that people are standing up for their local services.

They don’t like the fact that people are organised with an excellent community campaign.

They don’t like it when they are questioned and held to account by the public.

They don’t like it when people expose their failure to recruit and retain the right doctors and nurses.

They don’t like it when staff speak out raising concerns despite attempts to block them from doing so.

I am in no doubt that hospital bosses have a very different vision for the future of health services in Bassetlaw, and for me it smacks of old fashioned centralisation.

Bassetlaw Hospital has excellent staff and huge potential as a dedicated centre of health and surgical excellence. The challenge to health chiefs is to spell out a genuinely ambitious plan for the future of our local children’s ward and Bassetlaw Hospital.

This week, the council launched its green waste collection service and I am proud to say that I am one of the 3,116 Bassetlaw residents who will be will be putting this weekend’s grass cuttings straight into my brown bin and recycling more.

Collections started on Monday this week in the east of the district (Retford and outlying villages) and will begin in the west of the district (Worksop and outlying villages) next week.

If you haven’t already signed up for your brown bin, there is still time to do so and I think it is worth every penny of the £30 annual fee.

Go to www.bassetlaw.gov.uk for more information.