With the Bedford Borough Jobs Hub nearing its first birthday, this pioneering partnership project has received a welcome boost with the award of a national accolade for the innovative approach we are pursuing to support local residents into employment, training and enterprise.
As you may have heard, there has been very concerning news from Bedford hospital this week, with junior doctors to be removed...
Families across Bedford Borough are in shock this week following the announcement from Bedford Hospital of the removal of Children's A&E and overnight care from 1st August. This follows the withdrawal of junior doctors from the paediatrics department due to concerns over their supervision by senior consultants. It is appalling that this has been allowed to happen. The stark fact is that due to this failure of management by the hospital we are facing a period as a community in which parents cannot take an injured or seriously ill child to Bedford Hospital A&E.
Yesterday saw the urgent meeting of the Bedford Borough Health and Wellbeing Board on the appalling loss of vital children's services at Bedford Hospital. the meeting shed a little more light on this awful situation, and also revealed two particular major issues of concern in addition to the shocking loss of services.
In an email I have sent out this week, I have highlighted the threat hanging over vital children's services at Bedford Hospital on a permanent basis, and how the particular issue of the quality of supervision of junior doctors is being used to pursue a permanent downgrading of children's services at Bedford Hospital. I will do all I can alongside everyone who cares about protecting those services to stop that happening. Here's the email I sent:
Tomorrow at 1pm I will be joining hundreds of parents, children and large numbers of members of our community at large to make clear at a public demonstration that we simply cannot do without essential children's hospital services here in Bedford. The demonstration has been organised by the Save Our Riverbank Ward Group on Facebook, which now has well over 6,000 members. Please have a look there for the very latest on the arrangements for the protest, which will be a powerful expression of the disgust felt by so many that these services should have been allowed to be lost from our local hospital, and of the urgent need for them to return in full as soon as possible.
