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Petition Tag - hospital
1. Better Parking Facilities at Townsville Hospital 
Townsville Hospital needs more adequate parking spaces. The parking situation at Townsville is going beyond simply ridiculous to outright dangerous. At any given time up to twenty cars are circling the one carpark vying for spaces.
People resort to parking illegally as it is the only option other than parking outside of hospital grounds. It is something that needs to change and with the upcoming election now is an ideal time to bring it to the attention of our state premier.
2. Full Time Care Support for Type 1 Diabetic Children
Bassetlaw Hospital are only funding a Paediatric Diabetic Specialist Nurse (PDSN) for 15 hours/week. National Institute for Clinical Excelence (N.I.C.E) guidelines recomend that a PDSN should have no more than 70 patients under their care.
In Bassetlaw there are 60+ children with Type 1 Diabetes, almost the maximum that a FULL TIME PDSN should care for. We need your support to get the local MP and officials to fight for the care our children should be getting.
3. NO to car parking cash grab
The State Government has decided to impose or increase car parking fees at State metropolitan hospitals.
These new fees will have a negative effect on:
- patients trying to access health services
- family members and carers visiting loved ones
- hardworking and dedicated staff providing health services
We need your support to reverse this decision!
Sign this petition which calls on the Government to immediatley reverse their decision and stop car parking fees imposed at our hospitals.
4. Public Opinion - Whistleblower Pharmacist should be reinstated
Miss Neelu Chaudhari was struck off the Register of the General Pharmaceutical Council after a 27 year unblemished career as a senior pharmacist, for Whistleblowing.
The professional body accused her of bringing the profession into disrepute by her belief that the drug overdoses prescribed in a five week period, before her neice's death, were not errors but deliberate and should have been investigated by the professional bodies, independently of the Coroner, Police Primary Health care Trust, NHS Hospital Trusts and the hospitals.
The drug overdoses prescribed by the GP were continued by hospital paediatricians after admission to hospital and the baby was denied intensive care. She was then subjected to a secret "withholding withdrawing treatment", "allow to die" and "Do Not Resuscitate" medical opinion against her parent's wishes and without their knowledge.
The hospital doctors finally invited social workers to apply for a secret ex-parte Emergency Protection Order and Police arrest Warrant to isolate the baby in hospital, remove her mother from her cubicle and deny family visits to hospital in the last 6 days of her life.
The details of the drug overdoses were omitted by the Coroner, Pathologists and Police at the Inquest.
Neelu compiled an expert report into the drug overdoses and provided copies to the respective professional bodies yet no doctor, pharmacist or nurse has been properly investigated. Instead, Neelu has been struck off for doing what the professional bodies ought to have done. She is also required to pay costs of thousands of pounds to her professional body.
This petition seeks public opinion as to whether,
1. Miss Neelu Chaudhari should be reinstated as a pharmacist;
2. Whether the professional bodies should investigate complaints independently, promptly and without time limits;
3. Whether Whistleblowers should be compensated for their time and effort and commended for their courage, honesty and integrity.
5. Campaign for Public Hospital in Melton
Melton Shire is the second fastest growing municipality in Australia and urgently needs more health services.
For our current population and future residents in our new growth areas it is vital to have better health service options.
Residents of Melton travel to Bacchus Marsh or Sunshine Hospital for treatment which can be a risk to their health
6. Save the Elmstead Rehabilitation Unit
The Elmstead Rehabilitation Unit is an inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation unit at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup. It has over 400 patients, mainly from Bexley, and provides rehabilitation to people with Multiple Sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, Guillain Barre Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Ataxias and Muscular Dystrophy.
The unit provides vital services. The specialist rehabilitation provided there:
• helps people recover more quickly from a relapse or illness
• helps people maintain their mobility, allowing them to continue working, volunteering and socialising
• allows people to exercise independently in a supportive environment, helping them take control over their condition
• prevents hospital admissions
• enables those that are admitted to leave hospital earlier and in better condition
• provides a place for people to socialise Right now Bexley Care Trust is reviewing the future of the Elmstead Unit.
The Elmstead Unit Campaign Group has formed in response to concern that, in the context of large changes to local health services and financial pressures, the trust will stop or reduce funding for the unit, forcing it to close or reduce its service.
Help us protect the unit and ensure that people with MS and other conditions in Bexley have access to specialist inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. Sign our petition now and show Bexley Care Trust how important the unit is.
7. Rethink Cuts to Sheffield Children's Hospital
A Department of Health memo revealed the Coalition Government is planning to reduce the top-up tariff given to specialist children’s services by two thirds. This will result in £4.9 million cut each year to the funding that Sheffield Children’s Hospital receives.
The purpose of the top up tariff is to recognise that specialist children’s services need greater funding than mainstream health services. It takes account of the fact that children's procedures often involve more staff, more specialist equipment and requires closer monitoring than the same treatment for an adult.
A cut of this size could have direct repercussions on the ability of Sheffield Children’s Hospital to treat the most severely ill children in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the country.
This massive cut to specialist children’s services is far beyond what the government is cutting to other areas. It unfairly targets children and could hit Sheffield Children’s Hospital harder as it doesn’t have more mainstream services to rely on for income like many hospitals in other areas.
A spokesperson for the trust has confirmed that this cut “would have a serious impact on the hospital finances and its ability to deliver some services.”
8. Support Killarney Medical Centre Funding
Through the National Regional and Rural Health Infrastructure Program, the Killarney Task Force is asking for $450,000 for a new Killarney Medical Centre, which is crucial to maintain doctor support for the overall community as well as the hospital.
9. Restoration of services to the University Hospital of Hartlepool
Since 2003 the future of the University Hospital of Hartlepool has been uncertain due to the financial implications the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust faces in running two hospitals with full services.
Following a review commissioned by the then Labour government and the NT&H Trust, Professor Darzi concluded that there was a viable future for both Hartlepool & North Tees Hospitals and gave recommendations on how this should be implemented.
These findings were later ignored completely when either the NT&H Trust or the government decided that spending £465m on a new hospital in Wynyard, outside of both towns, was a better idea.
When the new coalition government came to power they wasted no time in scrapping this overly ambitious and deeply unpopular decision, to the delight of local residents.
Unfortunately however the very services Prof Darzi suggested Hartlepool specialise in had already been transferred to North Tees hospital leaving Hartlepool with sub-standard services and long, expensive journeys to North Tees for simple treatments.
We wish to fight our Labour MP's decision to continue to push for the closure of our hospital in favour of a unwanted pipe-dream that serves only to benefit those who stand to gain financially from the deal.
Following the closure of acute services and A&E services in Omagh and Dungannon, the west of N. Ireland has become, and to quote MLA Deeny "Unsafe to live in".
11. Stop The Hinchingbrooke Hospital Privatisation
Hinchingbrooke Hospital was to be closed in 2006. I was the organiser or the Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital Campaign, the result was 1500 people marching through Huntingdon and a 55,000 signature petition which was delivered at No 10 Downing Street.
Now they want to Privatise the Management - this will mean that ALL staff will work for the private company and profits WILL be made for the Private company's shareholders....
Maternity and A&E ARE in danger of being cut!
12. Support Billy Caldwell's Right To Life
Little Billy Caldwell was born on the 26th July 2005 and at only 4 months of age little Billy awoke from his sleep stared wide-eyed for thirty second and then seemed to doze off. He repeated this two more times that night at thirty minute intervals.
Billy was eventually taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children for further care under a specialist Neurological Paediatrician. Billy remained in the RBHSC for the next fourteen weeks as Charlotte watched as the doctor experienced the full range of seizures Billy was now taken. Eventually Charlotte was told their was no more they could do for her son and prescribed to Charlotte that sh would be shown how to administrate Morphine to Billy To Make his last few months on Mother Earth a little bit comfortable.
But Charlotte Caldwell Did not want her son to die so she researched and found a hospital in Chicago and today thanks to Charlotte Caldwell her son is alive but he needs special treatment which the Northern Ireland Government is now Refusing to give Billy.
O Hospital Ulysses Pernambucano, também conhecido como Hospital da Tamarineira, possui expressiva área verde e está encravado numa região do Recife de alta densidade construtiva e populacional. Presta grande serviço à população pernambucana, totalizando cerca de 1.800 atendimentos por mês na emergência psiquiátrica, além do tratamento aos pacientes internos nos 160 leitos.
A área pertence a Diocese de Olinda e Recife que não possui condições financeiras de mantê-lo, diante de uma proposta inovadora recebida por parte da Realesis empresa carioca que administra diversos shoppings no Brasil a diocese arrendou a área por um período de 50 anos.
Proposta essa que consiste em: Construção de um shopping center com 160 lojas e geração de mais de 3.000 empregos, preservação de 70 por cento da área verde a ser transformada em um parque,construção de ciclovias ligando a área ao parque da jaqueira que fica algumas quadras do empreendimento, restauração do casarão histórico e tranformação do mesmo em dois museus, 1º Museu do Inconsciente: dedicado a preservação da memória histórica do hospital,2º Museu ecológico com exposições e projetos de educação ambiental.
Todo o projeto do shopping será permeado no conceito ecológico, reciclagem de água,sistema de iluminação e climatização, bem como toda utilização da área externa onde ficará o parque aberto ao público. Parque seguirá os moldes de eco-conceito, inspirados na praça victor Civita em são Paulo, tornando-se o maior parque público da cidade do Recife, essa extensa área verde de aproxidamente 91 mil M² está inutilizada servindo apenas de usufruto para uma centena de pacientes internos na casa, pacientes esses que serão removidos conforme consta no contrato com a diocese para 3 clínicas especializadas em saúde mental a ser construída pela Realesis.
Totalizando um investimento de 300 milhões de R$, gerando emprego,renda,maior dignidade social aos internos, preservação do patrimônio histórico histórico e cultural e a criação de uma grande área verde de convivio para cidade.
14. Fair Treament of ALL Patients at Public Hospitals
Fair Treatment for All Patients. Recently whilst my partner was admitted to the emergency ward of our local hospital, i was disgusted to find him in severe pain and having no other alternative than to lay on the floor within the emergency dept (not wait room) due to the lack of care by nurses and staff.
Clearly beds were empty yet from 7pm to 2am my partner had to endure severe stomach pain and vomiting whilst sitting up in a recliner when the only way to alleviate his pain was to lay. Since I sent this to the News I have had hundreds of comments to me about others experiences and i start this petition to encourage more people to voice their comments and concerns.
You can view the video footage and blog here
http://invisiblechildrensupporter.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/hospitals-treat-patients-like-animals/
Channel 10 Report here: http://ten.com.au/ten-news.htm
15. Rappeler au président Kabila de réhabiliter l'hôpital de Lemera
Aider à rappeler au président Kabila de réhabiliter l'Hôpital de Lemera détruit injustifiablement en 1996, après avoir été utilisé comme site de lancement de la guerre qui a porté le Président Kabila au pouvoir. Cette terrible destruction a été menée par les forces militaires de l'AFDL au mépris total des conventions de Genève qui interdisent les attaques sur les hôpitaux et le personnel médical.
16. Petition for the Reinstatement of Link James
Link has been an employee at Bridgeport Hospital for 3 years. During this time he has out-performed all of his co-workers, even those with 15+ years of experience. When he is working, patient wait time is significantly shortened. It is evident when he is not working because patients will wait at least an hour to be transported. His all-business demeanor and concern for patient satisfaction, along with his motto "People Before Profits" makes him very helpful to staff throughout the hospital.
On July 6th, his supervisor informed him that his hours would be changed and reduced. She refused to accommodate his college schedule. Link was obviously very upset, and was fired for arguing with his supervisor. We are already feeling the effects of this foolish, irrational, and closed-minded decision, and patients are noticing.
17. Help Save Springfield Shriner's Hospital
On Saturday March 27th, I was reading the paper and it stated "Seven of the twenty two Shriners, including Springfield Ma., may have to close its doors.
18. We Need Your Help to Save Stroke Services in Ealing
The Stroke Unit at the Ealing Hospital is under threat from the Labour Government. Under Labour’s plans, Ealing and Southall stroke patients will have to go to Northwick Park or Charing Cross Hospital and either a stay in these hospitals or a transfer across the borough to either Hillingdon or West Middlesex Hospitals. There will be no provision for Stroke services at all in Ealing.
This is despite the fact that:
• 1,600 Ealing-Southall people were admitted to Ealing Hospital for stroke-related conditions in 2006/07.
• Admissions from Ealing Southall were running at twice the national rate in 2006/07.
• Approximately 4,000 people in Ealing have had a stroke at some time.
• Ealing Hospital’s Stroke Unit is performing well - in the upper quartile for the whole of London.
• There is clinical evidence that Ealing’s residents will not be covered fully by other hospitals under the plans.
• Residents will have to travel significantly further to visit and look after their friends and families under the proposals.
If closure of the Stroke Unit at the Ealing Hospital site goes ahead, as is being proposed by Healthcare for London, the implications for the running of other local services both in the hospital and in the community will potentially be serious. The specialist acute services and procedures such as acute vascular and coronary angiography will also be under threat.
Please help us to STOP the closure of Ealing’s Stroke Unit by signing this petition. This is Ealing and Southall resident’s opportunity to force the reversal of this potentially damaging proposal.
19. Stop the Closing of Pediatrics at Ben Taub Hospital
For over 25 years, Ben Taub General Hospital has provided high-quality pediatric inpatient care to the children of Harris County. Through its dedicated team of physicians, nurses, social workers, child life specialists, and affiliated healthcare workers, children can receive a complete range of services from general care to subspecialty and intensive care. It is a critical safety net hospital for Houston’s children.
Currently, the Board of Managers for the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) is considering a plan to scale back or close the pediatric ward and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Ben Taub and to redirect care. We strongly oppose this plan because doing so would detract from HCHD’s mission to “improve our community’s health by delivering high-quality health care to Harris County residents” and would jeopardize the health of our community.
Without the Ben Taub PICU, there would be no pediatric intensive care available within the Hospital District. Furthermore, this move would decrease the number of PICU beds in Houston and potentially require the transfer of these sickest children to distant cities, delaying their care. Even with the current number of PICU beds, children have been transferred as far as Dallas and San Antonio in recent months due to overflow. Closing the inpatient pediatric ward would mean the District would only have 27 inpatient beds for the over 200,000 uninsured children in Harris County.
Ben Taub’s inpatient pediatric service also coordinates more than 20 medical and surgical pediatric subspecialties, most of which are unavailable at other Hospital District facilities. Closing the unit would make essential subspecialties such as nephrology and physical rehabilitative medicine unavailable to pediatric patients within the District. Child and adolescent victims of trauma would lack the specially trained nurses and doctors to provide care tailored to their unique needs as they recover from their injuries.
20. Emergency Request for a Child in Need
We, The Undersigned, wish to note a child’s right for parental presence during critical care. We kindly request an emergency release of federal inmate, Brandon Bauknecht from the Sandstone, Minnesota facility.
Two year old, Hayden Bauknecht excitedly attended a birthday party at the local aquatic center on March 15, 2009. Many heard his laughter and saw his innocent care-free life as he played. His childlike faith assured him that he would always remain safe. Yet, faith failed the naive child. The party came to a devastating halt when the toddler’s playful body was found motionless in the pool. Breathless and silent, he was transported to the pediatric intensive care unit in Marshfield, where he remains in critical condition.
21. Glenside Campus – Not For Sale
Signatories to this petition oppose the sale of Glenside Campus.
Signatories also confirm their continuing support for Mental Health reform
consistent with the philosophy of the ANF ‘10 Point Plan for Reform of Mental
Health Services in South Australia’ and the ‘Stepping Up’ Report.
Signatories also believe redevelopment of the Glenside Campus must be a
collaborative approach including clients/consumers, clinicians and community
members with all processes being clear and transparent. Information must be freely available and decisions must result in certain and
safe levels of Mental Health service provision in South Australia.
Signatories to this petition believe the following must occur:A public guarantee
that no portion of the Glenside Campus will be sold;
- The publication of a guarantee that, if any portion of the Glenside Campus has
already been sold, that all efforts will be made to retrieve the land and, in
the event this is not practicable, all proceeds from the sale will be
quarantined for reinvestment into South Australia’s Mental Health services; - The provision of sufficient space for clients in both the built environments and
open space of the Glenside redevelopment, identified and agreed in collaboration
with mental health clinicians to maintain a positive therapeutic environment; - The provision of timely and transparent information on the number, location,
purpose and transition timetable plan for mental health beds in South Australia
(including supported accommodation, community rehabilitation, intermediate care
and secure rehabilitation services) that provides for safe, seamless and
co-ordinated provision of mental health services during and following the
redevelopment process; - The publication of guaranteed timeframes and budget associated with the Glenside
redevelopment; - A commitment to consult appropriately with consumers, Mental Health Nurses,
other health professionals and local communities and to genuinely take these key
stakeholders views into account in the redevelopment process.
This petition will be presented to the House of Assembly and requests the House
of Assembly to call on the State Government, Department of Health and the
Minister for Mental Health not to sell any portion of the Glenside Campus and to
ensure that the information, agreements and guarantees (outlined above) are
fulfilled to provide certain and safe levels of Mental Health services in South
Australia.
22. Restore Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center In Plainfield, NJ
We are a coalition of the People's Organization for Progress(POP)/Restore Muhlenberg Coalition/Buy Muhlenberg.
We are an alliance of citizens who are very concerned about the devastating effects that the closing of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center has on Plainfield, the surrounding 13 communities and over 200,000 people. We are worried about the rescue squads that are now saddled with longer travel distances and slower response times to medical emergencies. We are also very concerned about the additional burden placed on the other over-crowded area hospitals where medical care has been compromised.
Muhlenberg is an essential hospital that must be restored so please don't be afraid to share comments and personal experiences about the after-effects of Muhlenberg's closing when signing the petition.
We meet every Monday at 6:30PM at the Ducret School of Art, 1030 Central Ave, Plainfield, NJ 07060. All are welcome.
The coalition also has a Yahoo! groups listing. Please visit the website and add your name to the e-mail list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaveHospital/
23. Name the former Middlesex Hospital site "Middlesex Hospital Square"
"I think it is an important mark of respect to all the people who trained and worked at the Middlesex Hospital, for the benefit of many, to name the site in question as the Middlesex Hospital Square. NoHo Square is just a ghastly prospect and stands for nothing..." Sir David Jason
The Middlesex Hospital was a famous teaching hospital which had served the community since 1745. It had occupied the Mortimer Street site since 1755. The hospital buildings were built by public subscription between 1928 and 1935, without ever closing the hospital.
In 2008 the buildings of the former Middlesex Hospital were demolished. In their place, the Candy & Candy property development company planned to build an apartment and commercial complex worth close to £1.5bn, and re-brand this area as "NoHo Square".
As a result of the international financial crisis, however, Candy & Candy have now withdrawn from the project, leaving a wasteland in their wake.
Anyone with connections to the Middlesex is invited to join the Facebook group (see link), where more information regarding the campaign, photos etc is available.
There is now a move to demolish the Middlesex's former annexe on Cleveland Street. This is a Georgian building that was the former Workhouse. Those concerned by this further assault on London's heritage are encouraged to sign the following petition (follow link) as well.
Online petition - Save the Cleveland street workhouse
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39594.html
24. Save Our Country Hospitals
On the 6th Of June 2008, The South Australian Government released the Country Health Care Plan, A plan that could see up to 43 regional hospitals downgraded.
This would force rural residence to travel further away from their families and communities to get the care they need.
Petition to oppose changes under South Australia’s Country Health Care Plan that reduce Hospital Services in country South Australia.
This petition is supported by the:
• Australian Nursing Federation (SA Branch);
• Council of Remote Area Nurses Inc;
• Health Consumers of Rural and Remote Australia Inc;
• Rural Doctors’ Association of South Australia Inc;
• Women in Agriculture and Business of SA Inc.
26. Support Mental Health Rights
Mental Health history is sad and unfortunate. Conditions are improving. People are still subjected to involuntary admissions, solitude, excess drugs, electrocution, and lack of factual disclosure of treatments.
Mental phenomena cannot be proven true or false, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia may be based on real experience, and need not be condemned.
27. Radiowave Therapy Clinic for East Coast
Australian Dr John Holt's radiowave therapy is an alternative treatment for cancer that does not have side effects like chemotherapy.
There is a clinic in WA and one in Ireland. Jenny Barlow is trying to set one up on the East Coast of Australia to reduce waiting lists in Australia and also provide sick patients on the Eastern Seaboard with treatment as they can not travel to WA or overseas.
Radiowave therapy uses a specific frequency of 434 MHz (megahertz) in the UHF (ultra-high frequency) band to stress or activate cancer cells so that they can then be killed.
Dr Holt treated thousands of patients with one or other of his two radiowave therapies over a period of 30 years.
28. Preserving Pennhurst as a Memorial to the Past and an Investment in the Future
A Call to Preserve: Remembering the Past, Investing in the Future
A Case for Preservation
In the process of collecting stories about life and work at Pennhurst, nearly everyone offers the same refrain: a memorial to the suffering, kindness, and the resiliency of the human spirit all played out at Pennhurst, ought to permanently remain on the site and in the landscape of our cultural memory. Preservation at Pennhurst is a fitting way to remember our past.
But also as an investment in our future, we must consider preserving as much of that once beautiful and theraputic campus as possible. There are real economic and environmental benefits for communities who require preservation as part of their development plans. Those benefits--and the options for adaptive reuse--increase exponentially the more we preserve.
According to Preservation North Carolina, for every $1M spent on preservation versus new construction, each of the following is true: Five to nine more new construction jobs are created; 4.7 new jobs are created elsewhere in the community; $120,000 more initially stays in community; retail sales in the community increase $34,000. As preservation is labor rather than materials intensive, preservation money goes to hire local workers and stays in the community, whereas new construction money is more likely to go to far-off manufacturers and leave the community.
Tearing down buildings as substantially constructed as those at Pennhurst is environmentally irresponsible. It wastes millions of dollars of energy and materials already embodies in the structures; it will require a huge expenditure of fuel to demolish and the debris will overburden our landfills with potentially toxic combinations of materials. The materials used in new construction are highly toxic and energy-consuming to produce. Their use is irresponsible if old matrerials can be reused. Lastly, Pennhurst incorporates design elements that are environmentally friendly and expensive to replicate in new structures.
Preservation techniques can abate or encapsulate hazardous materials as or more cheaply than can be done in demolition. While preservation does not offer a get-rich-quick opportunity, tax incentives associated with it make it an economically feasible option for developers.
For the Forgotten
Reared against a cloud-studded sky high above a graceful curve in the Schuykill River, a mysterious, hauntingly beautiful, seemingly forgotten place casts its shadow into the valley below. It is the fabled Pennhurst State School and Hospital. Its venerable administration building, a formidable Jacobean Revival monument, has presided over the sprawling campus for over a century. At its height, Pennhurst was a self-sustaining community, with its own farms, power plant, and fire company, all staffed in no small part by the school’s thousands of intellectually and developmentally disabled residents. Also a major local employer, Pennhurst’s population dwarfed that of surrounding towns.
The campus buildings have come to symbolize Pennhurst—not just as a public institution, but as the setting of countless private and deeply personal stories that tell the tale of how we as a people have treated those we have defined as “others.”
The now forlorn façades provide little to suggest that the eyes of the entire nation were once intimately focused on the campus sprawled out under the administration building’s watch. Through Bill Baldini’s 1968 NBC documentary "Suffer the Little Children" and subsequent Supreme Court cases, the nation saw in these red brick structures the dreadful plight of thousands of Pennhurst residents.
The architecture’s pampered detail disguised a systemic malaise and bureaucratic apathy imperiling generations of confined innocents. “Granite walls of ignorance and social blindness,” as Baldini called them, masked the neglectful decay of Pennhurst’s residents. They, like the campus on the hill today, were intentionally forgotten.
A Place of Hope Amid Despair
Yet Pennhurst was also a place of an American awakening. Originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, Pennhurst was once seen as a model institution. It was a product of a self-proclaimed “progressive” era when the solution to dealing with disability was forced segregation and sterilization. Since the 18th century—a similarly self-proclaimed age of enlightenment—people with illness and disabilities were labeled “defectives.” As late as 1820, such “defectives,” along with other dependent “deviant” groups such as aged paupers and the sick poor, were grouped together and sold to the lowest bidder. A similarly conceived philosophy of disposal at the lowest cost was played out time and again at Pennhurst.
If only slowly and person-by-person, a growing and maturing society reconsidered this philosophy. History written at Pennhurst demonstrated that what was once held out as the only right option was in fact hopelessly wrong.
In contrast to the narratives of intense and prolonged tragedy, Pennhurst’s largely untold stories of deep compassion and great character evidence a rise of kind conscience that inspires yet today. One Pennhurst staff member recalls how she and others would volunteer their time on Saturdays and Sundays to clean the residents—most of whom could not toilet themselves—since the state budget did not allocate for housekeeping services on weekends. Another describes sharing holidays at her home with Pennhurst residents whose own families had long since stopped visiting.
But, also as shared by a former employee, there is another, rarely considered aspect to the Pennhurst story that is perhaps its most important: the indomitable and unbreakable power of the human spirit displayed every day by the residents themselves.
Despite the obstacles institutionalization presented, many of Pennhurst’s residents found ways to prosper. “They lived lives of inner dignity and grace” in an ammonia-washed world designed to strip that dignity from them. “This was especially true of the individuals who made up the ‘working patient’ group. Day in and day out, they proved their worth helping to care for their worse-off peers by assisting the paid staff in nearly every aspect of life at Pennhurst. “Even the most severely disabled found ways to assert their individuality and retain their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanized them in a million different ways. Many people who were told for years that they could not succeed beyond Pennhurst's gates proved the ‘professionals’ wrong, going on to live independent lives of worth and value” in the community long after the administration building’s great oaken doors slammed shut for the last time.
Just as we remember the sadness, we need also acknowledge these quiet triumphs of the human spirit.
What Pennhurst has to Teach Us
In a time when sound bytes distill the human story to a trite near-falsity, Pennhurst offers a story of dauntingly rich complexity.
But the themes Pennhurst represents come clearly:
* the power of conscience-driven people to do the right thing against the odds;
* the cost of apathy and willful blindness;
* the danger of classifying those different from us as “other”;
* the resulting propensity to treat the “other” in a manner unbefitting of the common standards of human dignity;
* the fallacy of resignation that comes when we think we are incapable of curing ills larger than ourselves.
* and lastly, the true strength of the human spirit
We are the living beneficiaries of these lessons from the past embodied in brick and mortar at Pennhurst. As such, we have a solemn duty not only to remember these lessons but to pass them on.
Though the entire Pennhurst campus was deemed eligible for the National Historic Register, time, vandals, and vagrants have taken their toll. Recently, the property was sold and there are fears that what remains of the Pennhurst property will be sacrificed to the onslaught of suburban sprawl. The long endured policy of forgetting about Pennhurst—its residents, its story—cannot persist.
Join us in overcoming complacency and putting aside notions that preservation here is impossible. Preservation is very possible and we can do it if our efforts are concerted. We are presented with a variety of options for preservation. While there has been significant deterioration, the buildings are structurally sound. A program of adaptive reuse could offer profitable new life as well as provide a lasting, living memorial.
There is reason to believe the developer and the township are open to the idea of preservation. The developer himself has said he would like to find a use for the property of which local residents will be proud. Certainly, we can all be proud of a memorial annd adaptive reuse. However, to make it happen, we must channel our support and direct it to action. To that end, please consider signing the following petition.
Additionally, please consider sharing your Pennhurst stories by going to http://www.preservepennhurst.com or through the forum on this website.
29. Freedom of choice for Hospitals - England or Wales
I need a colostomy as I am a War Vet. and the time has come for me to have this op. as my wife can no longer carry on as she too is an OAP and in poor health.
The Welsh Assembly has told my Consultant in the hospital of my choice for 23 years now, that they will no longer fund my own Hospital. I am sure it would cost the Assembly a lot more to supply a not too clever Ambulance service to transport me from my home to Hospital, then take me home again.
By going in my own transport it saves the Welsh Office considerable ammount of money in travelling expenses.
30. New Services at Kidderminster Hospital
It is vital that new services be introduced to Kidderminster Hospital.
I very much welcome the Urgent Care Centre, which should now be kept as a permanent facility. A Palliative Care Suite for the terminally ill is very much needed in Wyre Forest. At the moment our patients would go to Worcester or perhaps Evesham or Bromsgrove.
We need a local facility and Kidderminster Hospital is most likely to be able to provide such a service which would cost £500,000 a year. There is a real need in Wyre Forest to offer palliative care beds. Please sign the Petition for new services at Kidderminster Hospital.
