Political View with Melton borough councillor Mike Brown (Labour)
Many people will have read or listened to the findings of the recent report into failings in maternity services in Nottingham.
The sheer scale of the identified failures is heart-breaking.
As someone who lost a child many years ago, I have some sense of the tragedy this represented to the parents and families involved.
My thoughts and sympathies are with all those affected.
A particularly worrying aspect of the report are the repeated instances of parents and patients simply not being listened to.
When concerns and fears were raised, they were too often dismissed, ignored or disregarded.
I find myself thinking this has echoes of health care provision in Melton.
The campaign for the retention of St Mary’s Birth Centre in Melton provided a wealth of evidence to show the benefits of keeping that service open.
These were not academic arguments but based on the actual lived experience of women and mothers in Melton who could show the positive benefits of the service.
But these views were ultimately disregarded by NHS management.
Likewise the case for improved GP services in Melton has been supported by the widespread experience of residents who for many years have justifiably felt that local provision falls short of what they should expect and be entitled to.
But we are still no closer to seeing action rather than words.
Again, it feels that the local community are being disregarded. They are not being listened to.
At the last meeting of Melton Borough Council’s scrutiny committee, the leader of the council, Ronan Browne, confirmed that he will continue the work of previous administrations in working with the NHS to find ways to secure improvements in local GP services.
This commitment is welcomed. His candid assessment that any improvement in GP services might be five to 10 years in the future is less so!
Let’s be clear, the council does not provide health services, the NHS does.
All the council can do, as it has been doing for many years, is lobby, argue and protest on behalf of residents.
And it needs to do that loudly, stubbornly and persistently.
The residents of Melton deserve better. They deserve to be listened to.