Below are recent news stories relating to Reydon & Southwold Healthy Living Centre. You have the option of receiving these news stories when they are posted, when you show your support for the Healthy Living Centre Proposals.

There are currently 3 news stories. All stories are listed below, starting with the most recent.

Reported by Jenny Morris-Bradshaw on 23rd of May 2008.

Questions and answers at the May 21st 2008 Public Meeting at Southwold Pier by Dr Andrew Eastaugh.

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. It will happen anyway so why bother?

A. True. This is getting enthusiastic support from the NHS through Great 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 and in particular making sure 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?

A. No. What it will mean is that we will be able to control and enhance services to a much greater degree so that at the end of the day services that we and our children receive are significantly better than they would otherwise have been.



Q. But I still don’t really see how this could make a concrete difference to what goes on?

A. Ok, let’s take an 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 what it could do is insist that all of the services and parts needed to make the hospital work were properly co–ordinated under a on site matron or in–house manager and that the cleaning and catering was answerable to her.



Q. How will this building be funded?

A. Options include:

a) The local NHS paying from its Capital Funds

b) The NHS leasing from a developer who has provided the capital

c) Grant giving bodies

d) A combination of a) b)&c) 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 means its assets belong to the community. It 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.

a) It can issue shares which will 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 lettering 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 it could be raised through grants and shares etc. (see above) e.g. the new rugby pavilion in Southwold 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.

Reported by Jenny Morris-Bradshaw on 23rd of May 2008.

On May 13th 2008 representatives from Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT and the local community visited the 3 possible sites ( Mights Road, Eversley Playing Fields and Reydon Business Park) for the Healthy Living Centre and conducted a non financial option appraisal of each site . Eversley Playing Fields was rated best with Reydon Business Park the second choice. However a financial option appraisal will also be carried out and the outcome also depends on the negotiations with the owners of each site. These findings will form part of the overall preparation of a Strategic Outline Case which will go for endorsement to the East of England Strategic Health Authority in the autumn

Reported by Jenny Morris-Bradshaw on 9th of May 2008.

On April 21st 2008 we held a seminar in Reydon Village Hall to which some 80 key opinion leaders and members of the community from Southwold, Reydon attended.

This seminar provided an excellent opportunity for us to explain to people what we are planning for the Healthy Living Centre how we want to see it work in collaboration with other community facilities in the locality, The developments of community hospitals in other parts of the country and the importance of community engagement to ensure we get the services we need and want and which professionals want to provide for us.