Yesterday I attended the Council of Governors meeting at the Southampton General Hospital.

I had two questions that I had asked the Council to consider. They were read out by the Chair and answers were read out in the meeting.

I have no idea whether this was the response of governors, or the Trust Board, or of Corporate Affairs. 

No introductions were made. I was expected to be able to read the name cards on the desk.

The questions were:
 

1. Sprinklers save lives and property. In just a few weeks, over a hundred people - hospital staff, patients, and the public - have signed my petition for sprinklers at the SGH, and to make it mandatory in law. I received no direct response to my emailed questions to the Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer about the lack of sprinklers in the part of the hospital where the devastating and highly disruptive Major Incident fire occurred that destroyed the endoscopy unit and which took firefighters hours to control and resulted in hundreds of patients being moved and huge disruption to the entire Region of the NHS. I asked Emily Hudson and Joe Campbell of BBC South to find out if there were sprinklers, and there were not. Instead, what amounted to excuses were made in writing to me by Corporate Affairs. I tried to ask at the recent Trust Board but the Chair prevented me from speaking - a member of the public at a public meeting of a public service, funded by public money. Will the Council of Governors ensure that I get a written answer from the Trust Board now please, instead of Corporate Affairs and public relations people?
2. Will the Council of Governors please commit now to ensure that sprinklers are installed in all buildings at the Southampton General Hospital, and give a deadline by which this will be done? This will protect patients, staff, firefighters, property and local residents. It will also save money and disruption, as confirmed to me directly by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service when I spoke with them after the recent incident at Shirley Towers.

The Chair of the meeting promised the answers by email.

I was not surprised by their answers, but I did laugh to myself.

Not a single governor spoke in support of sprinklers.

We now have around 130 signatures of this petition.

I remained in the meeting to hear the verbal (not written) update by a substitute for the Chief Executive. The Chair was also a substitute.

Apparently the CEO and Chair had something more important to do in London than be answerable to the Council of Governors.

How democratic is the University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust?

Not very.

I am asking the hospital unions for support. More on that when I get a response.

Please follow the Southampton Independents website and Facebook page for updates.

Thanks for supporting this campaign.

Regards,

Andrew Pope

Member of the Independent Network

Co-Founder of Southampton Independents