WITH the busy winter season for the NHS in full swing, Healthwatch Oxfordshire chairman Eddie Duller sets the scene for the year ahead and looks at what matters most to patients.

Happy New Year? Not if you are feeling unwell or waiting for medical treatment, according to the top brass of the NHS.

They really weighed into us over Christmas by spreading doom and gloom and showing that they are completely out of touch with what goes on at the sharp end of the health and social care scene.

Hard on the heels of ordering an overhaul of the health service, with little or no regard to the social care element run by local authorities, the NHS chiefs hit the national news each day with a public relations exercise which rocked the morale of those providing the services and the confidence of those of us who pay for it.

Presumably the idea was to shape public opinion and get people ready for a massive cut in the number of hospital beds and to save cash by treating people at home – a step back in time during the formation of the NHS to an era when life expectancy was considerably shorter than it is today.

If so it was a ham fisted attempt which added nothing to the debate already started at local level and which will pick up speed in Oxfordshire this month and during the Spring and summer.

The top brass told us everything we already know.

The head of the GP service pointed out what a Healthwatch Oxfordshire survey told us a year ago, which is that there is a crisis situation surrounding our beloved and beleaguered GPs. She claimed it can take up to a month to get to see a GP, although our survey gave the worst scenario as being a three week wait. She decided this was dangerous and puts lives at risk. Does she really think that the public does not realise this?

But it was the NHS chief public health officer who came out with the most patronising statement of all when he told the over-65s to stay indoors during the cold weather. The reaction from the pensioners through national newspaper correspondence columns firmly put him in his place as they penned their scorn after a brisk walk in the fresh air.

In contrast the public health officer for Oxfordshire is more focused. His recent annual report spelled out the dangers of obesity in young children and teenagers, which will cause more problems for the health service in coming years. He also reminded us that Oxfordshire is leading the way in building more health conscious developments at Bicester and Oxford.

Then the NHS England chief nursing officer chimed in by suggesting that closing hospital beds and treating people at home will result in a better service for people without coming up with supporting evidence. This is a familiar cry in Oxfordshire where the JR Hospital in Oxford wants to close 182 beds and which will be the subject of much debate this month, as will the “temporary” closure of the consultant-led maternity unit at Banbury’s Horton Hospital, the argument over staffing of the community hospital at Chipping Norton and the 'temporary' closure of part of Wantage hospital, ironically on health grounds.

People in the north of the county are protesting vigorously and I can predict that there will be other protests if the local health authorities are not more forthcoming about the future of the community hospitals in the other Oxfordshire market towns.

Compared to the national NHS leaders, who also imposed unnecessary secrecy over the plans for the so-called transformation of the health service, the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which dishes out the cash for the local health services, has encouraged public debate.

Sadly, apart from Banbury, Chipping Norton and Wantage, there has been little public response to roadshows outlining possible changes.

There needs to be a lively debate if the public wants to help shape the services it pays for rather than being dictated to by the NHS, which appears to be more interested in cutting services rather than improving them.

The Oxfordshire health supremos have taken on board that the public is cynical about statements and promises, and that is hardly surprising when the authorities talk about streamlining services but do little about it.

In general the care given by GPs, hospital doctors and nurses in Oxfordshire is brilliant. It is the administration of hospitals that is not up to scratch, with poor communication internally and with their customers. The hospitals are still not joined up sufficiently well with the Oxfordshire County Council, which also supplies care at home.

In my view there is an overwhelming case for streamlining the services. With two hospital trusts and the county council involved there are too many fingers in the pie and it will only be solved when the whole service is under one organisation’s control.