ALL Penny Smith from Chilsworthy wants is the ability to die in her local community hospital.
Mrs Smith, 62, has ovarian cancer and has been given limited time to live. She has endured eight years of chemotherapy and various operations and now just wants the right to spend her remaining days close to her family, in her local community hospital where she knows the staff and feels safe and secure.
However, after being told she may not be able to have her final wish, because the future of Holsworthy Community Hospital’s inpatient beds is under threat, Mrs Smith has spoken out to get the attention of the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust.
Two years ago Mrs Smith joined the campaign to save the hospital, now she hopes to do the same and prove to the Trust why it is important they reinstate the inpatient beds they have ‘temporarily’ closed.
She told the Post: “At Holsworthy, we have currently 20 beds available at a time when all of our general hospitals are crying out for beds.
“Without any warning on Thursday, March 2, the staff were told that the hospital would be put on special measures, there would be no more admissions and the in bedded facility would be closed from March 31, supposedly temporarily — everyone feels that this will be permanent.”
Tackling the suggestions made by the NDHT that there has been a ‘sustained reliance on agency staff’ — also known as ‘bank staff’ — Mrs Smith said: “The staff at Holsworthy are loyal and very efficient, there is nothing unsafe whatsoever about the hospital. It is true that sometimes bank staff may be used at night, but they would always be coupled with a hospital staff member.
“I have been in Derriford Hospital frequently and nearly every shift, particularly at weekends, they use bank staff.”
Mrs Smith said: “I myself am in the unfortunate position of having terminal cancer, and I don’t know when my time will come. At the present time I have just received some good news, that I may be able to have some more chemotherapy, which would hold my cancer at bay.
“I, and many other people in my position locally, have felt very reassured that we could spend the end of our life in Holsworthy Hospital. I do not wish to die in NDDH, or a nursing home.”
On the other side of the story are the family members of patients at Holsworthy Hospital who have also been affected by the decision to close the inpatient beds.
Penny’s husband Andrew said ‘the effect will be traumatic’. He said he is lucky that he is able bodied and is able to make the journey to see his wife but is disappointed she will have to be treated at an unfamiliar hospital and be cared for by staff they don’t know.
“I am able bodied, I am mobile, I have transport — in that sense I am lucky. If we were an elderly couple in this very rural and isolated area, getting to places like North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, Derriford in Plymouth or even up to Exeter would be a nightmare. I would find it very difficult to visit my wife in hospital, which is terrible; the two-hour public transport journey alone would be traumatic.
“There are a huge number of people who will have been affected by this decision. The issue has been localised for us with the closure of Holsworthy Hospital but if you translate that to a country level it becomes a huge crisis.
“It is just so frustrating, it is not a logical or cost saving measure to have people move to district hospitals.
“From a purely personal point of view, I have spoken to dozens of other families in the same predicament as us and what I say echoes their feelings. The quality of care received at community level hospitals, in our opinion, is far greater as we have got to know the staff and feel safe — and surely that is what is most important?
Mr and Mrs Smith were hoping to attend last night’s meeting in Holsworthy Memorial Hall to voice their opinions.
Mrs Smith concluded: “How has anybody got the right to remove my security of how and where I end my days? The people of Holsworthy feel very strongly that ‘our’ hospital must stay open, as can be seen by how many people have signed our petition on change.org ‘Save Holsworthy Hospital’.”
Directing her words to the public Mrs Smith said: “I hope that when you have read this you too will get behind trying to save ‘our’ hospital.”