Mr
Michael O'Riordan
Worcestershire
Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Chairman
WRI
Site
Ronkswood
Worcester
WR5
1HN
18 October
2005
Dear
Michael
Thank you for
taking the time to brief me about the financial review currently
underway at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust.
First, may
I say that I am pleased to note that the Trust are not saying that
they are short of money but that there is a need to control costs
within the Trust.
I have some
concerns about the process of consultation. The
staff side and the Independent Review panels have little time to
assess emerging proposals and data from
Finnemores. In particular they will have next to
no time to test (consider) statements relating to the service cuts
proposed at the Alex before the Board considers the matter in early
December.
In
addition I have concerns about the membership of the Independent
panel that has only one out of fifteen of its members from
Redditch and one other from
Bromsgrove. Whereas the South of the
County, Wyre Forest and
particularly Worcester are much more
heavily
represented.
In looking
at the possible options contained in the Finnemore Preliminary
Report I am struck by the scale of the savings that could be made
from controlling bed occupancy and the length of stay within
hospital. In addition there are
considerable savings to be made from charging for work that is
carried out by the Trust and other behind the scenes
changes.
Given the
possibility of these savings I can see no justification within the
report for the reduction in services on offer at the Alex
hospital. My constituents deserve services that
are high quality, efficient and accessible. They
will never understand how services that are recognised now as high
quality (like A and E and maternity services) will remain high
quality if they are not accessible.
Accessibility is a criterion for excellence in my
book.
I am concerned that some within the Trust
will take the opportunity of the financial review to further an
agenda of centralisation of services at
Worcester. Last year we saw
centralising proposals with ophthalmology, the Special care Baby
Unit and now it is the turn of Paediatrics, maternity services and
the A and E. All the arguments for these service
changes are predicated in the same way. That the
service is too small and inefficient on split sites, the service
can’t recruit staff to work on split sites, that the service is
dangerous provided on split
sites.
The
assumptions made about where services are provided are often based
on the partially subjective views of consultants within
WHAT. That is not good enough for my
constituents. The justifications for proposals
that will remove A and E, maternity and paediatric from the Alex
must be reviewed from outside the
Trust.
In
any case I hope that you can provide me with evidence of
recruitment difficulties within the services that are in line for
cuts at the Alex and of professional bodies questioning the safety
of the current
provision.
In
addition, please can you provide me with the evidence that the
Trust are considering about whether or not people will travel
to Worcester for treatment instead of
going to Birmingham.
Because I think they will go to
Birmingham. I can tell you
that as a resident of Redditch it would
be a serious option for my family. After
all there is a train link to Birmingham -
not to Worcester, many people in
Redditch have family, work and other ties
to Birmingham but not to
Worcester. There is also a
perception about the closeness of Birmingham
to Redditch that doesn’t exist
about Worcester where the journey is
considered to be “cross country”
I hope that
you can provide the information that I require as soon as
possible.
As
you can imagine the prospect of cuts in services at the Alex are of
the utmost concern in
Redditch. My post bag
is already bulging with representations made to me about saving
services at the Alex and asking for me to fight to save
them. To date, you may be interested to know
that whilst there is general despair at the prospect of any cuts
there are as many references to concerns about maternity as to A
and E services.
Finally,
I have called a public meeting for 7 pm
on the Thursday 10 November at Redditch
Town Hall. I hope that you
will be able to attend, make a presentation and answer some
questions.
Many thanks for
your continued cooperation.
Yours
sincerely
Jacqui Smith
MP
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