I ask only they’ve admitted me into hospital twice, and every time I get a minor pain somewhere in my chest or on my arm I fear I’ll end up there again. Or worse
When I was in A&E earlier this year after one-too-many chest pains, I got talking to one of the long-serving porters who told me about the previous plans for expanding A&E at Addebrooke’s massively. I said I’d follow them up at some stage. With their annual public meeting coming up, I thought I’d ask. (You can sign up via here)
One of my issues with the structures of primary and secondary healthcare in Cambridge is that it’s not incorporated into local government. Neither are other services are decades of not-great ministers siphoning off various bits of local government into central government that don’t need to be there. The Job Centre for example. Take the budgets out of the DWP and hand them to local councils as part of their remits for economic growth and sustainability.
Addenbrooke’s services have not grown at the same rate as Cambridge’s population – city, county, economic sub-region
For all of the specialist services, Addenbrooke’s is still our district general hospital – it always has been in the grand scheme of things. That’s one of the reasons why its chimney is so iconic. One of the most strangely reassuring pieces of brutalist architecture around – even though it’s the exhaust for the massive incinerators that burn medical waste.
Above – the catchment for Addenbrooke’s
We know something exists somewhere because whatever it was, was given planning permission by Cambridge City Council in January 2005
Above – Planning permission granted by Cambridge City Council 11 Jan 2005
The problem is that none of the attached documents are there. So I’m going to ask around to see if the documents that were public at the time can be made public again so that we can re-use the information to help make the case for expanding the current one.
Above – Planning permission granted
“Wasn’t this built?”
Possibly – according to this pre-general election 2010 document
…although whether the unit and the 5-story building are one and the same thing I don’t know. That’s part of the detective trail!
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Below – a discussion guide on the NHS by Great Shelford publishers Independence Educational. Designed for school discussion groups but also useful for adults too
The Cambridge Town Owl 