Surrey & Borders Double Standards

The Draft Minutes of the Mid East Surrey and Croydon Team Informal Meeting Held on 14th June 2006 from 7 pm at The Redhill Methodist, Gloucester Road, Redhill, RH1 1BP reveal what we all thought they would, that Surrey & Borders would go some way to acknowledging its mishandling of robbing the Old Moat Garden Centre of their pitiful three pounds a day wages, mishandled because, and only because, the press and public found out and condemned Surrey & Borders for being so mean spirited.

Beyond that, we simply had very well paid Trust mouthpiece Peter Kinsey waffled on about the real reason for screwing the disabled workers over, the Richmond Fellowship were taking over the Old Moat Centre and did not want any 'baggage.'

There was a line on how the Trust could have communicated its intentions better ( no comment on the shabbiness of its intentions though ) and how the Trust and Forum would now monitor what happened to the Old Moat Garden Centre workers during the transfer of management period and over the next 3 months but nothing concrete about if or how the workers would be compensated for the losses the Trust's shady little deal with the Richmond Fellowship had cost them.

For greater insight into Surrey & Borders NHS Trust's and its PPI Forum's utter contempt for the disabled workers who keep their Old Moat Garden Centre operating look no further than item 9b in the same minutes, reproduced below. Please note , the service users' referred to in this item are the ones the Trust apparently consulted about cutting the garden centre workers pay.

Reimbursement for attending Trust meetings.

There had been different payment arrangements across the Trust. Ian Church had written a paper to pull together a Trust wide policy. The Trust would now pay a common mileage rate to service users (rate to be confirmed). The Trust feels it should also pay for people's time and Ian Church is looking into this.

I am writing to Surrey and Borders and its PPI Forum asking them both to explain the Trust's hypocrictical 'Modernisation' policy as it clearly values the input of some users more than others, with bureaucratic input clearly being valued more highly than manual labour and this , and the fact that the garden centre workers were never properly represented or consulted here , simply mirrors discriminatory employment patterns and practices operating across most NHS Trusts.

In short, the Trust bureaucrats and respectable PPI forum members have shat on the garden centre workers because they cant identify with them. This isnt simply a disability issue, class is at play here as well.