Chris Grayling

For the past ten years many of us have campaigned again and again to protect services at Epsom Hospital - particularly its A&E and maternity departments. Always it has seemed as if decisions about the future of the hospital were being taken by NHS officials in London and not by anyone in the Epsom area.

That is now about to change. The NHS reforms planned by the coalition government, of which I am part, mean that the decisions about the future of local hospital services will be taken locally, mostly by local GPs and their patients. From 2013 doctors will take over NHS commissioning - that is, they will decide which hospitals or organisations they ask to carry out treatment for their patients.

In addition to this, hospitals will be given greater freedom to manage their own affairs, without having to seek the permission of Whitehall to make changes. All hospitals will become what are called Foundation Trusts, or if they are not strong enough to do so on their own, will have to become part of bigger Foundation Trusts. What makes Foundation Trusts distinctive is that they are governed by representatives of patients, the local community and medical professionals.

This potentially creates a huge opportunity for Epsom Hospital, but it is one that has to be handled very carefully to make sure that things turn out for the best. This short leaflet is designed to explain a bit more to you about what is happening and what I plan to do to try to help ensure that things work out in the years ahead.

My goal is simple - I remain as committed as ever to Epsom Hospital, and I want to make sure that everyone locally comes together to give it the best possible future.

What is happening right now?

The Epsom and St Helier Trust is facing a new round of financial difficulties and has decided that it is not strong enough to become a Foundation Trust in its own right. This means that it is now likely that Epsom and St Helier hospitals will divorce, and that St Helier will merge with one of the bigger London Hospitals. It is expected that Epsom will return to being part of the health service in Surrey. The idea of a divorce will be welcome to many people locally, but it has to be handled very carefully.

So what is the future for Epsom?

There is no reason why Epsom cannot flourish if it separates from St Helier. Epsom Hospital was at its most successful when GPs had greater control over the commissioning of services for their patients twenty years ago. It was only forced into merging with St Helier when that system was scrapped. However it is a relatively small hospital and to succeed it will need to attract new services onto the site, and local GPs and hospital doctors will need to work much more closely together. This might mean, for example, having GPs working alongside hospital doctors in A&E to deal with cases of minor injuries.

One big issue will be ensuring that staff at Epsom get enough opportunity to experience complex cases, in order to meet national quality guidelines set by the Royal Medical Colleges. This means that Epsom is probably going to need a larger partner - perhaps one of the other, bigger Surrey hospitals - though it may not need to merge with that hospital in the way it did with St Helier. But it is also very possible that Epsom will end up, at least in part, controlled by the doctors who work there.

What happens next?

The Epsom and St Helier Trust has set up a special board to plan the future of the two hospitals. It is being chaired by a businesswoman from Surrey, which is good news for Epsom Hospital. Over the next few months they will decide whether the two hospitals should divorce, and how that divorce should take place. In the case of Epsom, they will decide whether there is a way for it to stand alone, or whether it will need to work with another partner in the future.

So what are we doing about all of this?

I am already in discussion with local GPs, the doctors at the hospital and with managers in the various NHS management organisations involved with shaping the future of Epsom. The main representatives of our local GPs have agreed to sign a formal statement saying that they are happy to see the acute services, the A&E and the Maternity department at Epsom remain for the future as long as they maintain their quality standards for patients. This is to make doubly sure the current Trust doesn't try to plan for a future for Epsom without its acute services.

I will continue those discussions so that everyone involved locally works together to find the best solution. The NHS has also agreed to put in place a senior manager who is dedicated to help plan the best possible future for Epsom.

What should local people and hospital campaigners do right now?

There is no immediate need to relaunch the kind of campaign that we did in the past. If the future of Epsom is back in the hands of local doctors and local people, there is a real opportunity to make it the kind of success story it used to be. But the informal Epsom Hospital Campaign group, which has representatives of local doctors, patients, councils and MPs on it, continues to meet regularly and will do what it can to help keep things moving in the right direction.

The way everyone locally can help is to make it clear to their GP, whenever they see him or her, that they are committed to Epsom's services and that they want to see our local GPs work together to ensure that Epsom has a strong future. The future of Epsom hospital is now in the hands of our local doctors, and we want them to take the right decisions.