Lifeline care for some of West Dunbartonshire’s most vulnerable patients could be placed at risk under proposed cuts to surgery support staff, a GMB trade union leader has warned this week.
The proposal would mean half of community link workers employed in health centres in Dumbarton and Vale of Leven being paid off by West Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership (West Dunbartonshire HSCP).
However, according to reports, the service is at risk as a report being considered by the HSCP suggests cuts to surgery workers are needed to deliver half of the £320,000 savings required to balance the books this year.
Council leader Martin Rooney, Rory Steel of GMB Scotland trade union.
GMB Scotland has warned that the cuts would be a “false economy” as patients’ physical and mental health suffers and pressure is piled on GPs but some might say they would be as well talking to the wall.
The community links support team says this looks like yet another postcode lottery which would hit hardest in the most deprived areas of which West Dunbartonshire has many.
Rory Steel, GMB Scotland policy and external affairs officers, said pockets of poverty exist even in the wealthiest neighbourhoods and specialist support for patients should not be limited by postcode.
He said: “The gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods in Scotland has never been wider and the work of the community links workers has never been more needed.
“The loss of their support will lead to more ill health and poorer outcomes for some of the most vulnerable patients.”
He told one journalist: “These proposed savings are nothing of the kind. They are a short-sighted false economy and will only increase health inequalities, pressure on GPs, and hospital admissions while leading to many more preventable deaths.
“The Partnership should take them off the table and find a new way forward.”
A spokesperson for West Dunbartonshire HSCP told the Lennox Herald (they refuse to speak to the Dumbarton Democrat because we print stories that do not reflect well on them) said: ”As is the case for healthcare services across the country, West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership is facing considerable financial challenges.
“The HSCP is committed to working within its means, and to help achieve that it has needed to make a number of difficult decisions about the services it provides.”
Their story touches my heart.
There is no mention of the financial difficulties that arose when they tried and failed to finance the Levengrove Pavilion despite having taken the project on or whether what was essentially a leisure project was being paid for out of a healthcare budget or whey they refused even to look at a petition with more than 1,000 signatures from the sacked GP’s patients stating he had been wrongly deprived of his practice, which an employment appeals tribunal judge decided he was.
Or how anyone with common sense could have placed a facility at for complex patients up Garshake. Or shut the community care homes and sold one off to a private company to whom they gave a £250,000 discount.
The GMB have pointed out that part of the extreme pressure on the NHS locally in A&E wards (the one at Vale of Leven Hospital was closed and is once again in danger of that patients face ‘Russian roulette’ as some of them are waiting 12 hours to be seen.
Martin Rooney added: “The HSCP fully understands the importance of the Community Link Worker programme and the positive impact it has had on both patients and healthcare providers. We would like to thank all those involved in the service for their hard work and commitment.
(Strange statement to make that since no decision has yet been made on their future – Ed)
He went on: ““We are doing all we can to maintain the level of service for the most vulnerable people across West Dunbartonshire, and as such we plan to adopt a targeted approach so that our scarce resources can be concentrated in the most deprived areas, ensuring the people with the most need have continuing access to support.
“We would like to apologise for any distress or uncertainty this difficult decision might cause.”