18/02/2014 Spotlight

Anger and distress over plans to close a number of day care centres

across Devon. Good evening. The council wants to

cut the number from 35 to just nine to save money, tonight we'll hear

how it could affect those who use the centres. I shall be just here,

Shantou? Just sitting here. There is not much to look forward to.

Also tonight: Friends and family of an angler call for a change in the

way rescues are co ordinated. Chris Newton died off the Lizard

last year, but could he have been saved if a rescue helicopter had got

to him sooner? And we continue our journey around

the region to hear your stories about the storm damage and to look

at the recovery. First tonight: Elderly and disabled people in Devon

who use some council run day care centres say they're devastated many

could be closed to save money. Devon County Council wants to reduce

the number of centres from 35 to nine saying it would save around ?2

million a year. The council says people would be given money to buy

alternative services directly from the independent sector. Kirk England

reports. Struggling to cope with what could

lie ahead. Martin Moss says that going to the day centre in

Barnstaple for just two days a week is his lifeline. It is facing

closure. I looked upon it has not only a day out but almost, as most

people go to work, I went to the day centre. I've built my week almost

around it. To not have that and have it taken away from you would be

catastrophic. Devon County Council wants to shut 26 day centres across

the county to save money because fewer people are using them. Iris is

a regular at this in Bideford. I think they are just saying we are

not worth anything, we are past our sell by date. It has made me very

depressed. I have never had trouble with sleeping and now I have, I keep

waking up at 4am and I just feel dreadful. Devon County Council says

that if the plans go ahead they want people to use the money they get

from the authority, so`called personal budgets to buy alternative

services from the independent sector such as charities. I understand

totally how difficult it is for people, it is difficult for us to

make these decisions and consider these issues. What we have to do is

look at how to provide the same service in a more cost`effective

way. In some places that may mean that we invest in services.

The saving from the plant closures has been built into the latest

budget for the Council which will be agreed this week. A public

consultation is underway and a final decision on the day centre closures

will not be made until March. Well, one organisation which could

play a greater role in providing day care is Age UK. I asked Martyn

Rogers from the charity in Exeter what impact the closure of the

council centres could have. Day services are a lifeline for people.

We provide day services ourselves and a chap was saying to me just the

other day that he lives in a house but this is his home. They really

become almost friends and family for people, they become very important

as a way of getting out and connecting with the world. If day

services to close it will have a big impact. Our job now, if that is the

case, is to manage that in a way that works for people by finding

suitable alternative provision. The council is talking about reducing

the number of days enters from 35 to nine, is there enough provision to

make up the slack? That is the worry. We have got a berry that

works for people by finding suitable alternative provision. The council

is talking about reducing the number of days enters from 35 to nine, is

there enough provision to make up the slack? That is the worry. We

have got buried berry patch you picture across the county. There are

things that we can seamlessly do to offer alternative provision. Quite

how it will work in more rural areas where there are transport

difficulties and all of the rest, I am not sure. Everybody talks very

passionately about them so why do you think the council say that fewer

people are using them? First of all the council's own in`house services

are more expensive to run as an independent sector services. There

is a financial imperative where the council wonder if they can afford to

do it because of the savings they need to make in the next few years.

People are doing other things and I am surprised that the take`up is as

low as it said. We have had people who have almost voted with their

feet and they have left the day services in Devon and come to ours.

Part of it is to do with the service that you provide. I do not say that

the services in Devon are poor or they are not good enough but I think

people come and view a service on a trial basis and they pick up whether

there is a lot going on and whether people are engaged and whether it

feels good place to be. In the voluntary sector we have volunteers

as well as staff which means that we have more people back can engage

with individuals and by energy enthusiasm and skills and it means

we can be more flexible in the service that we provide. Thank you

very much indeed. Plans to share medical records are

being delayed until later this year. The BBC understands that NHS England

has accepted that people need to be given more information. Our Health

Correspondent Sally Mountjoy reported on concerns about the

scheme here in the South West earlier this year and joins me now.

What is all the fuss about? For the first time our GPs will be handing

over our medical records to a big NHS national database. The database

will be used to monitor health care and improve it and they will also

handed over to some people for research purposes. This was all due

to start happening within weeks. Every household in the country was

supposed to have a leaflet explaining how it would work but a

couple of surveys have shown that only one third of us have seen that

leaflet. Various organisations have been very concerned that people did

not know what was going to be going on in regards to their personal

health information and they said that the whole thing should be

halted so that we could all be properly informed. Now NHS England

has bowed to pressure and delayed the roll`out of this project for a

few months. They said it was to allow more time to build up the

benefits of the information. There have been concerns about the use to

which the medical records will be put but the director of NHS England

says there are many safeguards. This is data that will not be sold off to

the highest bidder. None of the personal information that you

provide to the GP that you may consider as incredibly sensitive

will not be released anyway. It is about major disease categories and

it will not be released to insurance companies and anything used outside

the NHS will be a non`eyes. All of the people who have had concerns,

how have they relaxed it `` reacted to this news? They have said it is

the right thing to do. Cornish GP says it was very wise to pause at

this stage. He remains concerned about how private health care

companies might use the information about us. He says that we should

actually have two opt into the scheme rather opt out. I feel that

if the data held by your GP is to be transferred out of your GP's

control, you should be allowed to make a positive choice that that

should happen. It should be an opt in and not an opt out. What ever

happens we have a few more months to make sure we are all properly

informed about it. Thank you very much indeed.

A bridge on a key commuter route between Devon and Cornwall which was

closed when a van drove through a wall is to re`open tonight.

Newbridge at Gunnislake has been closed since the beginning of the

month. Engineers and stone masons have completed the repairs ahead of

schedule. The police are warning that the

recent storms have uncovered a number of unexploded wartime bombs

on beaches in the South west. Several have already been defused or

removed, and today a naval bomb disposal team carried out a

controlled explosion on a world war one device at Watergate Bay in North

Cornwall. The family and friends of an angler

from Cornwall who died after falling overboard are calling for changes in

the ways rescues are co`ordinated. Chris Newton was fishing off the

Lizard in December last year when the accident happend. They believe

he could have been saved if a search and rescue helicopter had been

scrambled sooner. Scott Bingham reports.

This man fished with their friend Chris Newton many times. 58`year`old

Chris who was diabetic had gone out alone in a dinghy and he was fishing

for place. He failed to return three hours after they said `` he said he

would be back and so they called 999. Steve was able to listen in to

the rescue on his radio and as the drama unfolded he was amazed that

the rescue helicopter was not scrambled until an hour after the

call. If it had been tasked an hour earlier they would have gone to the

exact location where Chris was and they would have pulled him out of

the water and winched him abroad `` aboard and straight to the hospital.

Chris had been plucked from the sea is still breathing and his friends

assumed he was in a helicopter and on his way to safety. That evening I

went to bed thinking he was a lucky man and it was not until the next

morning that I realised he was incredibly unlucky. I just feel like

there was an opportunity to save his life and it was sadly missed. Steve

contacted the local MP who wrote to the Maritime and coastguard agency.

It has thrown up matters that I think are worthy of review, the

operational procedures that seem to be in place when a single`handed

vessel is overdue and deep precise time when it is appropriate to task

a helicopter. The Maritime and coastguard agency said in a

statement that any death at sea in a tragedy and added that asking a

helicopter was not usual practice for an overdue vessel. They said

that following a review of the response they were satisfied they

had tasked the correct resources at the correct time.

Still ahead in the programme this evening.

We are off to Cornwall as we continue our journey round the

region looking at the damage the storm has left behind.

All this week on Spotlight we're looking at the work of the North

Devon Hospice.This year its celebrating its 30th birthday. The

charity wants to use the milestone to change people's perceptions about

hospice care. Tonight, our North Devon reporter, Andrea Ormsby, looks

at the work of the Hospice's bedded unit. Hello, hello. How are you? I

am fine, how are you. This is more like a quality hotel than a hospital

and it is not miserable. Helen has been here for just over a week. You

forget all about the sad thing is to a certain extent. They are always at

the back of your mind a little bit. The area is beautiful, even in the

middle of the winter with all the wind and the rain that we have had,

it is still a lovely place to come. It is a very special place to work.

It is full of laughter and the nurses have a dreadful sense of

humour and we are always making jokes but it can be a very happy and

fulfilling place. This doctor is the medical director here. This is the

inpatient unit. We have seven beds, seven single rooms and we admit

patients here with a wide range of conditions for periods to get their

symptoms under control and hopefully we plan to get them back home

again. The average length of stay is just over ten days. May I come in?

Hello. Roy has a lung disease and he will be here for just one week. I am

comfortable and I have had a lovely bit of dinner but I cannot eat too

much because of my complaint. I have been resting and I have been

settling in. The doctor came in to talk to me and here I am, waiting to

see what might happen. They are ever so kind up here. When somebody comes

here, from the outset we are saying to them, what is important to you?

What goals do you want to set? We try to be very clear about the fact

that we can do a great deal to support them in terms of their

physical care but also in their emotional and spiritual care as

well. We can also support the family. Although the nurses here do

all the medical things you would expect, not of their is with

emotions. You struggle with your feelings because you are not sure

quite how you feel. You rock and roll a bit and we would have a

little chat in the middle of the night. It is brilliant, they will

bring you a cup of tea and they know you can only drink two sips of it

before you go off to sleep but it does not matter. It does not matter

at all. They help with so many things. Sometimes you go home and

you are exhausted, not because you have been busy but because you have

given a lot of yourself to your patients. It is an honour. It is, it

is an honour, the work we do is an honour. It is a very special place

to work. Around 170 people were cared for in this unit last year, it

is a crucial part of the hospice but only a small part. The vast majority

of hospice patients are cared for at home.

Well, since we filmed that report, Helen, one of the patients who

talked to Andrea, has passed away but her family did want to use the

footage. Tomorrow we'll be looking at how the hospice does the bulk of

its work out in the community. More pictures have been emerging of

the dramatic damage caused by the storms. At Beesands in south Devon

the storms gouged out a long section of the sea defences. This was

Lamorna Cove's harbour wall before the storms and this is it

afterwards. And this is how Portwrinkle's harbour used to look,

it now has a hole in it. And at the popular Devon beach of South Milton,

sand dunes restored by The National Trust have also been ripped apart by

the waves. And you can see more before and after pictures on the BBC

News website. If you saw yesterday's programme

you'll know that our reporter John Henderson is spending this week

travelling the Spotlight region from West to East to see for himself some

of YOUR stories of storm damage. We've been asking for your

suggestions of where he should visit and thank you to those of you who've

already contacted us with ideas. From West Cornwall to Dorset,

nowhere has entirely escaped the effect of the recent extreme

weather. John's journey began in Lamorna Cove and Penzance. Today

he's moved up the coast, calling in at Coverack, before ending up on the

beach at Gorran Haven, near St Austell. Here's how he got on.

Tuesday morning on the Lizard. Look at this, the sun is shining. For the

next stage of my trip this is as far as I can go in the car. This is

Coverack, picturesque fishing village on the Cornish south coast

and it copped it during the storms. This is the result, a huge hole in

the sea wall, right underneath the main coast road into the village.

Need at hand with those pasties? Thank you very much. They are

Cornish pasties. They would not be anything else! Absolutely. This

business is holding up and the stop `` shot even stayed open during the

Valentine's Day storms but the closed road is preventing the

bigger, essential deliveries. Do you have any Mars bars? I do not because

the lorry bringing the menace to big to get into the village the back

way. Time to hit the road again. My next destination is 40 miles away. I

am seriously lost. I am following the cameraman. I hope he knows where

he is going. One and a half hours later I am in Gorran Haven,

Friday's waves smashed the starters `` shutters of the beach at page

giving the owner and nasty shock. Catching the light switch with water

spraying on it was a basic thing not to do but in the panic when you come

in the pitch black and you can feel the sea sloshing around your feet it

was an automatic thing to do! Help was at hand his daughter flew in

from France. This is my parents dream since I was a little girl,

they always wanted to run this place specifically so a few weeks away

from opening it is gutting to see it all destroyed but we will get there

and we will get it fixed up and it will be open when it is supposed to.

The cafe showed Troost Cornish spirit in overcoming the storms.

Tomorrow we will see how Devon is faring. I will be checking social

media and e`mails and tweets as to where you want me to report from

next four days three of the trip, as we leave Cornwall and head into

Devon. Still a lot of places and damage to

see. So just a reminder, you can get in

touch with John by emailing Spotlight or via social media. Now

for some sports news and some of you may not want to relive this after

the humiliation our cricket team suffered in Australia this winter in

losing the Ashes, it was left to the England Women's side to show the men

how it should be done. But Charlotte Edwards' tourists went down under

and came back victorious. Today, at their headquarters in Taunton,

they've been showing off their prize.

This piece contained some flash photography.

Taunton is a place of happy memories for Charlotte Edwards. To date with

the Ashes trophy and her batting gloves she gave some back. It marked

her first appearance as a full`time England professional after the

announcement of a new ECB deal. It is one thing I did not think I would

see in my playing career so when we got the news I was overwhelmed. I do

not think it has quite sunk in yet. I am very honoured to be one of the

first professional women to play cricket so hopefully I have a few

more years and I can enjoy that time as well. Add ?40,000 a year it is

likely to help her job inspiring youngsters, allowing teenagers like

these to choose cricket as a career. The number of girls playing

is already on the up. A scheme has seen 1 million take part already. I

take being a role model released seriously. It is important to be in

school than be visible to younger girls. When I was growing up I did

not have any role models especially in this sport, it was all male role

models. It is important that we are having success on the pitch and

equally when we go into schools that we act in a way that inspires girls

to take part in the game. After inspiring so many memories of her

own Charlotte hopes to inspire the seeds for these girls to do the

same, especially when it comes to showing the men how to do it.

On to football and tonight's matches take on extra significance for two

of the South West clubs. Yeovil Town need to get winning quickly,

starting with Watford at Huish Park. They're currently seven points off

safety in the Championship. New loan striker Elliot Richards looks to add

to his first goal for Exeter City when Morecambe visit St James Park.

There's coverage of both games on BBC Somerset and on BBC Radio Devon.

It's time for the weather now and many of us have been very grateful

for a bit of respite from the storms. No sign of any heavy rain or

gale force winds at the Exe Estuary today, in fact it was a scene of

tranquility there with a few light clouds and plenty of sunshine. It

almost looked like Spring had arrived. I'm sure there will be a

few more hiccups before that happens though.

What sort of clouds were they? I do not know!

You sounded like an expert! Cumulus nimbus perhaps! You are

naughty. Let's find out what's in store for us now. Alexis Greene has

the details. store for us now. Alexis

Hello, it will turn wet and windy in the middle of this week with gales

making a return. Now to look at the week in general. We will have rain

or showers at times and they could be heavy with hail and thunder. We

will see some sunshine as well very like we saw this afternoon and it

will generally be frost free. This is the satellite picture from

earlier. Clumps of cloud over the region spreading to the region

spreading to these and they brought as heavy and thundery showers but it

was an improving picture. Sunny spells by the end of the day and you

can see it on the radar clearing to the east and sunny spells making an

appearance. Temperatures did quite well today. Tonight the showers will

gradually is. You are looking at a dry night with clear spells

initially but the mist and fog may make a return like last night and it

could be dense across Dartmoor and Exmoor with temperatures falling to

around nine degrees. A dry start to the day tomorrow and the cloud will

increase very quickly and showers rolling across the region. The

showers could be heavy with hail and thunder and there will be dry

periods as well before the rain arrives by the afternoon and

evening. Temperatures will reach 11 or 12 degrees and the wind comes in

from the south. This is the forecast for the Isles of Scilly. Showers in

the morning and then rain arrives by the evening. The wind is

south`westerly and the high water time is 7:03am. The next full moon

is on the 16th of March and that is a Sunday.

We are expecting a fairly wet day all in all tomorrow night and the

wind will veer to the south`west and showers are expected. The sea state

is a moderate or good. The outlook for the rest of the week sees heavy

rain moving in on Thursday and it will arrive on Wednesday afternoon.

We will see the rain piling from the West and the gales will develop

along the south coast. Maybe gusts of 40 mph. The rain will move

through quite swiftly on a Thursday morning and we are expecting around

half an inch of rainfall which will not help the flooding situation. The

rain will rattle through on Thursday and there will be scattered showers

perhaps with hail and thunder for the south. And I'm settled period on

Wednesday night into Thursday and generally unsettled. We are

expecting showers tomorrow and following that drier periods with

sunny spells through the afternoon before a band of rain arrives in the

evening. On Thursday and Friday wet on Thursday with shower was to

follow and fairly unsettled for the rest of the week.

It was nice to see the sun briefly today! That is all from us. We will

be back at 6:30pm tomorrow. Good night.

Next week we will explore stories of bravery and sacrifice. The nurse

that came to Belgium to save councillors lives. The lace making

factory transformed by war. The prisoner of war camp holding

thousands in Dorchester. The air Station in Cornwall protecting our

coastline and the Devonport man whose horrific injuries led to

pioneering plastic surgery. The other stories on Spotlight next

week.