Moving to Dairy Crest

OK. Plans are in place. Things are moving.

We will be operating from the Dairy Crest Social Club building (pictured) on Monday 29th November.

Looks lovely doesn't it!

Boots shop will be there too, but may not be able to dispense medicines. We are pretty sure it is Morrisons who have appealed against the PCTs decision to allow the pharmacy to move there with us, so that is now held up in further red tape.
It seems one major point of the objection was the lack of disabled access.
I've just been there today (16th Nov) and walked up the disabled access ramp that had been specified to be there all along. I think their appeal is, as they say, "vexatious" and I feel the PCT should dismiss it.

How will we all squeeze in?

We'll just have to get used to losing our sense of personal space, and have a load of Portakabins too.

Not so sure the midwives will be there though.

It seems their management it looking at ways of reducing costs- proposals include having NO home visits for antenatal or postnatal checks. All these checks would be done at their clinic. The clinic wouldn't be at the Surgery either as it is currently. One option they are looking at has the patients on the Dartmouth and Totnes patch having a Newton Abbot Hospital based midwife for all their care. This would mean you having to go to one of their community clinics for even the 3rd day postnatal checkup. Just imagine, drained and exhausted, with a newborn child and a perineum bruised and torn, dragging yourself the clinic for a  check up. What impact this all might have on your ability to get a home birth I don't know. What it would mean is that if you had your baby in Torbay then you certainly wouldn't have the same midwife as had done your antenatal care.

Health care assistants would do much of the work currently done by trained midwives- including some of the postnatal checks etc. I can't believe that would be safe.

It does seem as though now they've built Newton hospital they are having to justify its existence- by dragging all and sundry there from all over the place for whatever reason. 

There is a posh delivery suite at Newton though- currently though only 3 or 4 births a month. You can park there though.

While I am ranting... has anyone seen any sign of any work starting at Rushbrook?

Back in February / March we finally had the possibility of moving temporarily into Rushbrook finally removed.

"The project work and pre planning we have already undertaken with regard to Rushbrook together with our timings, mean it is likely we will need to commence work on the site before your centre will be ready for re-occupation"  was the message we had in March. At that point we could have got going and been well settled in with building work at Leatside well under way.... "could we back in for New Year???"

As it is we have had to use a less suitable site at much greater expense. Much more.

No going back now but it makes me very cross.

Does anyone know how Rushbrook came to be in Devon County Councils hands?- did they buy it off Dr Jellicoe? Does anyone walk round there and still hear a faint distant call of a peacock?