Q. Why do we want the Reydon and Southwold Healthy Living Centre?

A. Because we want the best possible facilities to deliver the best possible care in a unified and co-ordinated way. A Healthy Living Centre will not only provide all the services that we currently enjoy from the surgery, Southwold Hospital and the District Nurses, but will also enable these services to be expanded, have an improved Social Services and Home Carers network and’ very importantly, include a care home that can provide long-term nursing care for people with Alzheimer’s and intensive nursing needs, enabling them to continue to live in this community near to their family and friends.

Q. Why does the community have to get involved? Multi-service clinics are part of government policy so won’t this project happen anyway ?

A. It’s certainly true that this project is getting enthusiastic support from the NHS through Gt Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust but public involvement is crucial to this. The more the local community gets involved and behind this project the more we will be able to have a say into what is built and how it is run in the future. It is in our interests to ensure that the decisions are made locally not by some large organisation at a distance.

Q. Surely involving private developers is very expensive in the long term?

A. There is a strong political debate about the desirability of private finance in providing surgery and hospital buildings but that is currently the way things are managed. However, it is also one of the reasons why having a strong Community Interest Company is so important. This will firstly enable us to negotiate the terms under which this building is funded and owned; and secondly, if we are able to come up with a proportion of the capital, it will give us a direct stake in the future ownership forever.

Q. Surely this means that we end up paying twice – by providing direct funding on the one hand and by paying our taxes and National Insurance on the other?

A. No, because, without community ownership, the sort of health facility we could look forward to under NHS funding alone would be nothing like as comprehensive as the one we have in mind. What’s more, we would have little or no control over how the services were tailored for our local community’s current and future needs.

Q. But I still don’t really see how getting involved locally will make a concrete difference to what goes on?

A. Ok, let’s take just one example. Many people feel that the lack of the old fashioned type matron who had control over the whole hospital is one of the reasons why the standards of cleanliness have been slipping and that has been linked to the rise of super bugs. Now we are not saying that local ownership through a Community Interest Company can single-handedly abolish super bugs but at least we would have the clout to insist that all of the services and parts needed to make the hospital work were properly co-ordinated under an on-site matron or in-house manager and that the cleaning and catering was answerable to him or her.

Another example of the benefits of local ownership is that we would be better placed to organise outside clinics and services being set up locally. If we have the premises we can offer clinic space to whoever we like to run a service; as long as the services come up to specified standards and are within the NHS price.

Q. How will this building be funded?

A. Either:

• a) the local NHS paying from its Capital Funds
• b) the NHS leasing from a developer who has provided the capital
• c) a) or b) working in partnership with the Waveney Healthcare Community Interest Company, if we the community wish it to.

Q. Who are Waveney Healthcare CIC?

A. Waveney Healthcare CIC is a Community Interest Company. This is a relatively new type of not-for-profit legal entity specifically for enterprises which exist solely to benefit the community and whose assets belong to that community. A CIC is much like a registered charity but provides the flexibility and safeguards of a limited company The Waveney Healthcare CIC has been set up principally by Southwold and Halesworth Surgeries with the League of Friends of both Community Hospitals as a way of developing community services within the NHS with local control.

Q. How will Waveney Healthcare find the money?

• a) It can issue shares which may pay a dividend so individuals can have direct ownership.
• b) It can receive grants from the Government or charitable Trusts.
• c) It can borrow or set up a loan.
• d) It can directly fundraise.

Q. Are we not letting ourselves in for an awful lot of fundraising?

A. Not nearly as much as one might think because:

• a) We are not trying to fund the whole project - only to have a significant stake
• b) It is likely that a high proportion of the funds could be raised through grants and shares etc. (see above) eg. the rugby pavilion has been funded mainly from grants and only a small proportion from direct individual giving.
• c) This community has traditionally been very generous with its support for the community hospital. Through Waveney Healthcare we are trying to ensure that the community retains ownership.

Q. "If we are serious about community ownership, why are we proposing to close down a much loved Community Hospital?"

A. We are certainly not proposing closing the Community Hospital; rather to move it to a new and better site where it can expand and flourish meeting the demands of the 21st century.

Q. Why a CIC that links Southwold/Reydon with Halesworth? How in practical terms will this partnership be beneficial?

A. Our community has much in common with Halesworth, in particular being at a distance from the district hospital and having our own local community hospital. There is a definite advantage in working together as well as the need to integrate what we do here with the wider picture locally.