TomDimmock

Well, most of us signed a petition to save the NHS A&E in Chichester.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Prevent the threatened closure of the A&E department at St. Richards Hospital, Chichester. This A&E facility is the only one serving this area to the North and South of the Downs in the Chichester area. Closure would mean that cases would have to go to either Queen Alexandra Hospital Cosham (already overloaded and some 40 minutes away) or Brighton the same distance away. Money has been spent on modernising the facility and this will be wasted. Downgrading the status of this hospital will also remove a valuable NHS training facility at all levels.

Well, a response by Downing Street and the rest of the Government has been formed. I have copied it below.

Although the Department of Health provides strategic leadership to the NHS and social care organisations in England, it is for local NHS organisations to plan, develop and improve services for local people. These bodies are therefore best placed to respond to patients’ concerns and needs. However, the Government has made it clear to the NHS that any changes to the configuration of local services should not compromise patient care and should show how the quality of care will continue to improve further in the future. Local services must continue to meet patient safety requirements and the standards set in National Service Frameworks and should demonstrate how they will use improvements in medical technology and techniques in future.

The Government is halfway through a ten-year plan to provide a modern NHS, responsive to patient needs and focusing equally on promotion of health and well-being, as well as the treatment of ill health. So far, the NHS has been leading the change, focusing on increasing capacity with more staff and more facilities. As a result, hospital waiting lists are now the lowest since records began, early deaths from cancer and coronary heart disease continue to fall and patients have more choice and involvement in their own care. The White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: a new direction for community services focuses on a strategic shift that locates more services in local communities and closer to people’s homes. Similarly, the Department of Health’s clinical reports, such as Mending Hearts and Brains and Emergency Access - Clinical Case for Change outline the opportunities to change acute hospital care in order to deliver the best possible services in future. These proposals build on the improvements that have already been made to health and social care and will reinforce the Government’s existing programme of reform.

Plans for the future configuration of acute services provided across the southeast have not been determined at a national level. Any proposals for change that may be put forward by local NHS organisations will be subject to extensive consultation with local people. This discussion phase will inform the proposals, and any significant service changes proposed will be subject to the full public consultation which is expected to take place in the autumn. The decision for the future service pattern will then rest with the Primary Care Trust (PCT), which will analyse the responses and decide which course of action to take.

Should formal public consultation be required, the PCT’s final decision will be subject to scrutiny from the local authority overview and scrutiny committee (OSC), which is made up of elected local councillors. If the OSC determines that the consultation has been inadequate or that the proposal itself is flawed, it can refer the decision to the Secretary of State.

Well. In my opinion, it shows that the decision has been made and set in stone. Then again, I think it has been like this since day one! Why bother shutting down a major A and E department, which has been and still is in the black.

I don’t think the PCT care about another 17,500 deaths each year (estimated figure from campaigners).

Well, I will leave it up to you to comment your ideas on this, or visit http://www.supportstrichards.co.uk

Take Care…