16/01/2017 Inside Out South East

Is the national Health Service really national? Absolutely, there

is a postcode lottery. It is not about clinical need, but about some

places in England having poorer systems, having budgetary pressures.

That does not field to national to me.

The mental health sufferers who are helping themselves.

It is hard. It is hard because people don't see it, because we do

not have two head or anything. We look normal, whatever normal is.

You hide it. You do hide it to well sometimes, because people don't

understand how horrible it is. And Brighton's i360. Is it a gem of

the South coast or a terrible eyesore?

Isn't it vile? Isn't it a disgusting insult to the heritage that you can

see surrounding us as priest Anglia? I am Natalie Graham, with untold

stories from all around the south-east. This is Inside Out.

Hello and welcome to the programme. It's great to be back, and today, we

come to you from Deal in Kent. So like, we're taking because a the get

health care, as budgets tighten and patient numbers racket. There is

pressure to ration treatment. So we are asking, if the NHS still a

National Service? Does where you live now matter more than ever when

it comes to getting the care that you need? Chris Jackson reports.

The NHS is facing a significant financial challenge in its history.

There are fears the service we have grown up with is beginning to

fragment. It's criminal.

Absolutely criminal. This is the start.

This is going to get worse. So is the NHS in danger of

ceasing to be a national service where everyone is entitled

to the same care? But is it becoming a postcode

lottery where access can It feels like my bones

are screaming at me at times. 33-year-old Ben Franklin

has Hepatitis C. The virus can cause

life-threatening liver damage. I could possibly lose

the flat over my head. There are new drugs that could

potentially cure Ben s hepatitis. All I got was, "wait,"

because my liver wasn't bad enough. The money is there for just

over 10,000 treatments. It's claimed that means

there are no queues in parts of the North and long waits

in places like London. Two people with exactly the same

state of liver damage could present themselves in different parts

of the country and in one, they'll be able to walk in and get

hepatitis C treatment immediately, And in another part of the country,

a makeover and he told sorry, And in another part of the country,

they may go there and he told sorry, NHS England told us it was regularly

reallocating unused hepatitis C treatments to places

with waiting lists. The number of patients treated

will increase by 25% next year. So Ben is taking the risk

of treating himself with cheaper The fact that I had to pay

for my treatment... I'm tired of being tired, basically.

Sorry. Ben is hoping the generic drug will

kill him within a matter of weeks. Ben is hoping the generic drug will

cure him within a matter of weeks. The Hepatitis C Trust estimates that

around 1,000 people in Britain may Gloria McShane has

cataracts in both eyes. I can't take stairs,

go up or down stairs Cataracts are supposed

to be treated within four Gloria, who lives in the north-east,

says she's been waiting seven. Because there is such

potential for accidents, and there is such a change

in a person's mood. If Gloria had lived in Luton,

her weight could have been If Gloria had lived in Luton,

her wait could have been as little as 15 days.

A postcode lottery? Absolutely, there is

a postcode lottery. It's not about clinical need,

it's about some places in England having poorer systems,

having budgetary pressures and That doesn't feel

too national to me. Gloria expects to get her

operation later this month. It really makes me angry,

because I think that it is almost Clinical Commissioning Groups,

or CCGs, control health budgets. It's claimed some are delaying

treatments like cataract surgery Others are requiring patients

to lose weight before getting Postponing an operation

in these circumstances can And whilst the CCGs say it can be

clinically justified, the Royal College of Surgeons

say it can't. There's a very good evidence that

people are now not getting elective operations simply

because of financial restrictions. These are operations that they

desperately sometimes require. It is up to the clinicians

to decide who should have what treatments,

and therefore, a bureaucratic system that produces a blanket

ban is morally wrong. It's also claimed new systems

for vetting appointments with specialists are another

form of rationing. Last month, MPs complained

about a private company being paid ?10 for every GP

referral they stopped. This is rationing by the back door

and has the potential The same private company oversees

referrals in North Tyneside. We've spoken to doctors

who say the system is The GPs, who fear speaking out,

told us that cancer I tried to get a patient

referred to a dermatologist. The referral management

service said it was a skin lesion, and rejected it.

That was a disaster. It was a nasty,

invasive skin cancer. They are putting up barriers,

using delaying tactics. It's getting between the doctor

and the specialist. In a statement, North Tyneside

CCG said there was: Cancer referrals do not go through

the system under me to the hospital. The number of referrals knocked

back to GPs in England has risen by about 30%

in the last two years. You can see the details

of our research online. Shortage and regional difference

have always been part of the NHS. Today, the differences

could get much worse. The NHS is under an unprecedented

level of pressure at the moment. If it doesn't get more funding,

waiting times are going to get longer, the quality of

patient care is going to suffer. So we will see different

decisions taken in different parts of the country,

and different services So, is the NHS still

a National Service? One of our most prominent

medics is clear. No, it's not a national service,

it is now a local health service. I think it matters, because it leads

to inequality in health care. Some people will get health care

for free and others won't. In a statement, the Department of

Health told us that far from rationing, more people than ever are

getting treated. 3000 cancer patients more are being seen every

day, and standards of care are improving.

We asked the Health Secretary and NHS England for an interview. Both

declined. The people actually paying for NHS services, the clinical

commissioners, did agree to speak. It's a national service

with local variation based Demographically, populations

vary quite significantly It's really important

that we commission and respond to the needs of that population

on a local basis. It's about making sure

that the pathway is correct. We have limited resources,

so it's really important that the resources we have,

we spend more effectively, getting For those forced to take

their own action, rationing Chris Jackson reporting. Coming up

on Inside Out the people who hate Brighton's i360 take a trip to the

top. Excited? Thrills, thrilled! The adrenaline is buzzing.

Now, last week, in a major speech, Theresa May said "If you suffer

"from mental health problems, there's not enough help to hand".

Well, there's a group of sufferers in East Kent

In fact, they have decided to take matters into their own hands

In a church hall in Deal, Liz is getting things off her chest.

It's dark in the morning, dark in the evening and my pain's

It's a shame you don't live any closer to us, isn't it?

This group of people meet every week, and the reason they get

together is because they all have mental health problems and they're

The group is called Talk it Out and it's run by Tracy Carr.

Although you'd expect it to be like you're all sitting

round in a circle like saying "I'm so and so" and it's not,

We managed to get each other on Facebook, because the thing

was I added the wrong person by mistake.

The weekly sessions are totally self-funded and self-organised.

We're going to look at what they do, why they feel it's necessary

and whether they are the right people to try and help one another.

People like Liz, she's been coming since the group

She wanted to tell us why with the rest of

I lost my auntie who was nearly 96, which was good,

because it was a good age, but she sort of took over

from when my mum left and I lost her ?

and then a month after that, my daughter had a baby

girl and she passed away at three days old.

You've got a group out here who cares, who doesn't care how

you are, what you look like, what's inside your head or what's

not, we're all the same, you know, "a bunch of nutters".

But you know we're there for each other and when you don't get any

help out there from mental health services, money whatever, time,

enough people, our group is there for you and you can't put

It's all right, don't be sorry, you doughnut.

You're stuck with us lot, anyway, for good.

The Prime Minister Theresa May recently put mental health

For Toulon, mental illness has been something of a hidden injustice in

our country. Shrouded in completely unacceptable stigma and dangerously

disregarded as a secondary issue to physical health.

Tracy, who runs the group, has no problem with the work of GPs.

But she says there is a gap between seeing a GP and actually

getting specialist psychiatric treatment, a gap which her voluntary

For instance, say you go to the doctors, you're

suffering with depression, you need some kind of therapy,

then in an ideal world you would go straight on to therapy,

Some of our group members have been waiting up to six

Some of our group members have been waiting up to six months.

But the mental health campaigning charity SANE say people who have

mental health problems shouldn't have to rely on small

Well, we don't believe that groups like this, like Talk it Out,

should actually have to take a responsibility of people

The failure of the psychiatric services to look after people

in crisis has become a scandal in Kent as in other areas.

The local CCG her say they have invested more money into local

health services in the area. I'm absolutely committed to

improving services in deal, and at the moment, I'm sorry to hear that

people feel they have been let down. We have in listening to what people

tell us, and we are one year into a five-year programme of completely

turning over and improving we offer to people who live in Deal. Of

looking after people with mental health problems and Tracy's

responsibility, then why does she do it? Well, she used to be Deal's

Mayoress, but never enjoy the limelight. She suffers from anxiety.

I had a really bad breakdown in my early 20s, and had a complete

broke down and I needed my mum, and broke down and I needed my mum, and

that happened again in my early 40s. It's hard, because people can't see

it. We don't have two head or anything, we just look normal.

Whatever normal is. You hide it. We Whatever normal is. You hide it. We

do hide it, sometimes too well, because people don't understand. I

have been OK. Yesterday was not too good, but I have pulled through that

and I am better now. Meanwhile, other members of the group are

talking it out. John has Asperger's syndrome,

and feels socially excluded. Since coming to the group,

I have felt a bit different and I can even travel by myself

and I can go and use my bus pass I take with me,

my dad says I look like convict 101 on this, you know, have you seen

this man, believed to be Another member of the group is

Kelly. She joined because she has post-traumatic stress disorder,

caused by her former partner. Every day I thought I was going

to die, I'd try anything to get out of an argument -

even sexual things sometimes, I was completely

controlled and intimidated. That was bad enough,

but after a night out, On the way home, her partner

started questioning her We got in, he carried

on questioning. There was an empty champagne bottle,

Sainsbury's own champagne bottle that we'd had in the week,

picked it up and whacked me round the leg with it and then over

the head with it about four times. And then I got up to go

to the bathroom to try and slow the bleeding down,

he pushed me around the house. Then he wanted to go to

this mate's house of mine, so I went with him, thought,

I'm bleeding, I'm going to die, On getting to the house,

I didn't realise Chris had brought a knife with him and on just

entering the friend's house, Her boyfriend was arrested and given

a 14 year sentence for seven violent offences.

I was thinking the other day actually, you know,

five years now we've been here and you were one of our first.

I'm still having some therapy, which is going all right.

You've got a lot going on, especially next year as well.

The people I've met say the group is helping them,

but most of the volunteers are not trained councillors

but most of the volunteers are not trained counsellors

Apart from one retired psychotherapist, none

No, our qualification is that we live with it,

I mean, you can read anything in a text book,

but it's not the same as living with it.

We know exactly what we want and what we need.

The latest figures from Public Health England show that the suicide

rate in Kent is higher than the national average, and people who say

they are suicidal contacting Tracey through the Talk It Out Facebook

page. Mainly with Facebook, I had taken over that.

Mainly with the Facebook group, it's "I've taken

One of the comments here: "Help, please, I need

Oh, another one here: "I'm so tired fighting my demons,

I just don't want my nephew to hurt or my family to hurt,

so that's why I'm still here, because they're the last thing

I think of before I end up feeling too suicidal.

Even though I still have bouts of not wanting to be

here any more or can't cope, but I do somehow.

I just sleep it off or just hide away for a few days,

recuperate a little bit and then I get a bit fed up with it

so I'm like "I'm here world, here I am again".

Tracy says she gets around four appeals for help every week.

There's over 100 people on our group page,

so that'll just escalate over the winter.

Would you say all those 100 people have felt the NHS hasn't

I think every single person has felt the NHS hasn't given what they need.

I'm very happy to hear about this group, because they are providing

support to people who are in a bad way. I'd like to be able to help

them more. I'd like to be able to give them more recognition and more

support. In terms of money, we are in such a difficult time at the

moment, but at the same time, I would be very happy to sit with

them, to listen to them. But yes, we need to improve what we are doing.

night, a group of people know they night, a group of people know they

can bring their troubles to a church hall in Deal and Talk It Out.

If you are feeling emotionally distressed and

If you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of

organisations which offer advice and support, go online: You can call for

free at any time to hear recorded information.

last year and cost ?46 million. But last year and cost ?46 million. But

in a city known for its eccentric in a city known for its eccentric

architecture, it has been a controversial development. So, eight

months after it opened, have the doubters changed their minds?

It's the world's tallest moving observation tower, standing 162

Its first summer season has hit some highs.

We had 100,000 visitors in the first four weeks.

And lows, with the ride getting stuck several times.

The i360 is a little bit like Marmite here

in Brighton and Hove - it completely divides opinion.

Absolutely incredible, you can see so much more

Isn't it a disgusting insult to the heritage,

These three Brighton residents, Matt, Rebecca and David are amongst

many who don't have a very high opinion of the structure.

I don't think it fits in with the seafront at all.

The i360 was the grand plan of architects and entrepreneurs

David Marks and Julia Barfield, the husband and wife team

After visiting many cities across the world,

they landed on Brighton, and chose the site of the old west

Our concept for the i360 was very much a phoenix type

It's taking the horizontal pier and lifting it up like that.

Whereas on the horizontal pier people paraded out,

they walked on water, Victorian society could promenade,

we're taking it 21st century, people are walking on air,

Our three critics are unimpressed with the i360, but despite that,

we've asked them to take a trip to the top to

So how are we feeling about going up, excited?

Thrilled, thrilled! You know the adrenaline is buzzing.

The tower consists of 17 steel "cans" or tubes made in Rotterdam.

It's less than four metres wide, making it the most slender

The viewing pod is 10 times bigger than a London Eye capsule.

But many feel this construction doesn't sit well

What about the argument about how that industrial architecture fits

One of the most exciting views of the project is actually

of the toll booths with the pod in the background, it's that kind

of conversation between the old and the new which I think

There's at least one positive for David.

From here, you can actually spot some parking spaces!

I still don't understand how they got planning permission

considering how many people have this in their line of sight.

Planning permission was granted ten years ago.

There's been no real consultation with the residents

It was a six-month consultation period, so it was an incredibly

detailed planning application and consultation process that took

place and I don't think anyone was excluded from that.

The architects secured a loan of ?4 million and put up ?6 million of

their own money, but still needed an extra ?36 million.

So the city council came up with an idea.

They borrowed the money from central government

They then lent the money onto the architects and charged them

The council should earn ?1 million a year from the difference between the

two interest rates. They say they will spend it regenerating the

seafront. But if the company can't repay the loan back to the council,

what happens then? Is there any situation

in which someone would have to bail It would have to be a situation

where we get no visitors at all, I mean, or less than 50%

of the visitors we've projected, but the evidence so far

is we're on track with that, but the evidence so far

is we're on track with that. So now they're at the top,

what's the final verdict Yeah, I was divided

at the start with the whole There's something quite serene

and relaxing about being this high up and looking out

onto the South Downs as well. I'm still slightly torn. Because it

is an amazing view. It does look incredible. But I can't stop

thinking about if I looked thinking about if I looked

underneath it and looked at it all the time. I'm not convinced Brighton

is the place for it. Will you look at this

differently now? It was a pleasant journey,

but it was travelling up to a high level on a round piece of ugly

steel, you know, so it doesn't There's no doubt that the i360

is one of the most striking additions to the coastline

of Britain and it'll be a feature of the Brighton skyline

for many years to come. additions to the

coastline of Britain. And it'll be a feature

of the Brighton skyline Now, if you would like to know more

about the programme, you can go to our Local Live pages on the BBC

website, or watch the show again on iPlayer. Coming up next week... Why

our land Rovers so popular with thieves in Kent and Sussex?

It is not a that people drive, it is It is not a that people drive, it is

a car that people love, that people cherish, and the impact from these

people when they have had it had it stolen, it is like losing your dog.

The young woman from Brighton who fought her cancer and YouTube.

It was something she needed to do. It was something she wanted to do. I

think she wanted to share with the world.

And graffiti from the Middle Ages in the castles of the south-east.

To find something like this in a castle, that is rare. That makes

this very special. That is all for tonight from Deal.

Thank you for watching. See you next week.

Hello, I'm Louisa Preston with your 90 second update.

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It's something that drags you in and crushes you to nothing.

It's something that drags you in and crushes you to nothing.

MUSIC: Ebony by Young Fathers

# Young, unassuming Eucalyptus blooming

# Masquerade of masochists Said I'm only human

# 5 past 11 10 past dead

# 20 to the hour till the hour spells dread