As many will be aware, your Community Council was represented on an NHS working group that was looking into the organisation of the community hospitals of which there are four in the Borders. Our community hospital being Haylodge. We took comment from the community and fed back into the process. How much notice will be taken of this feedback is debatable.

It was specifically said at the outset of the process, that the treatment of minor injuries was not up for discussion. However, having had previous feedback from the public, We asked why “minor Injuries” was out with the scope of the exercise? The answer was provided that the decision resulted from previous work considering this issue alone. The deciding factor apparently being that wider training is required as to whether a particular injury can be dealt with on site or would need referral to A&E (e.g., if a head injury was involved).

The writer wasn’t convinced then and isn’t convinced now. Do all minor injuries amongst community hospital patients require referral? If not, then surely if staff are qualified to take appropriate action on site, then they should be able to place butterflies on a cut and bandage it and yes, if necessary, send the person to BGH? After all, we are talking only of first aid.

Setting the foregoing aside, we asked our community to comment and more than one ex doctor, ex nurse and administrator “saw no reason why minor injuries should not be treated at a community hospital".

The question keeps coming back; directly to us at PCC and on Facebook as per this example "Anyone know what happened to minor injuries at Haylodge? No-one would look at my four-year-old’s split chin and so now he had to go to A&E which isn’t the right place obviously, but what choice is there?"

Well, if you consult the website it says, "Hay Lodge Hospital … The hospital staff provide a 24-hour minor injuries services". It is now nearly six months since this writer first flagged up this error to NHS management.

Recovering from a recent operation myself, I wasn’t going to write an article this month until I was informed yet again of this issue. This time an accident of a pensioner on the Haylodge Site was, I am told refused first aid. Firstly, this goes in the face of natural decency. As a one time advanced first aider myself, I couldn’t turn away a person needing help. What is the world coming to? It goes against the information laid out in the NHS, Haylodge website.

A quote from a member of the public was "If they didn’t want to help others why did they enter the profession?" Why indeed? But this isn’t fair, the staff are only following orders from management and staff have no legal requirement to do otherwise. Under GMC Guidelines "Doctors must offer help in an emergency". It is only guidelines, but it says "must", not "may" or "should". It is in effect an ethical duty. We don’t see the RNLI ever refuse a callout and we should not see a refusal to help here either.

As always: support or comment to Anne Snoddy (Secretary PCC) secretary@ccrbpeebles.co.uk

Peter Maudsley

Chair

Peebles and District Community Council