Epsom Hospital Update
TRUST WITHDRAWS CONTROVERSIAL PLANS AFTER HUGE PUBLIC PROTEST
The Epsom and St Helier Trust has announced that it is withdrawing its controversial document that recommended the downgrading of Epsom Hospital after a furious public reaction to the plan. Around 400 people attended a special public meeting organised by local MP Chris Grayling at the Methodist Church in Epsom to protest against the Trust's proposals - but instead heard that the Trust had contacted Chris just before the meeting to say that they would scrap the document.
The meeting heard strong statements of support for the Hospital from Chris, Nancy Richmond, co-founder of the Butterfly Centre at the Hospital, Sir Paul Beresford, MP for Mole Valley, and two leading consultants from the hospital, Dr Khan and Dr Darlington. People in the audience voiced their anger that the proposals had been put forward in the first place, and said that they did not want to have to go to St Helier for treatment.
"I am delighted the Trust has decided to withdraw these proposals", said Chris. "They were already undermining staff morale, and were likely to make the Trust's problems worse and not better. I hope the last few days have provided a firm reminder to the NHS that the people of Epsom are strongly committed to their hospital, and we will not stand idly by if key services are removed from it."
"However this doesn't mean that we can now stand back from this issue. Whilst the Trust has withdrawn these proposals, they say they are still looking at the challenges they face and intend to come back with alternative proposals about dealing with those challenges. I do not deny that they face some difficulties - but so do other hospitals around the country. Closing down hospital services on a large scale is not an acceptable response to those difficulties."
The meeting agreed to launch a letter writing campaign to the Trust to urge them to continue to support Epsom Hospital and to remove the uncertainties about its short-term future. If you want to support this effort, you can write to: Lorraine Clifton, Chief Executive, Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, Wrythe Lane, Carshalton, Surrey.
This is the text of the statement issued by Trust Chief Executive, Lorraine Clifton.
Service Review Update
On reviewing the current situation as part of my process of learning about the Trust, I have realised that an internal discussion paper recently circulated widely and freely within the Trust has caused a high degree of concern, both internally and externally.
As its purpose was only to provoke debate into some very real issues that the Trust's hospitals and staff are experiencing, I have agreed with its authors that this paper should be withdrawn.
However, the issues are still there and I would like to summarise these, in order to start to develop a clearer understanding of the discussion that needs to continue within the hospitals and with our local communities. The main issues are as follows:
- We have some specific concerns about senior A&E and onsite anaesthetics cover at Epsom out of hours. We are therefore putting into place some very short term ways of strengthening the service, at the same time as looking into longer term more sustainable measures (because the short term solutions include current staff working considerable extra hours and providing emergency cover across more than one site, as well as extensive use of temporary staff).
- Dealing with major (and largely national) shortages of some groups of specialist staff, which makes recruitment difficult.
- Meeting the European Working Time Directive, which we are legally required to do from August 2004.
- Resolving a large recurrent financial deficit without reducing any services.
- Using the strengths of our total size (both population covered and individual services) to create much stronger services for all patients than the current fragmentation provides.
Discussion will therefore continue within the Trust about a range of possible service changes that could solve these issues and it is likely that individual clinicians and managers will need another month before they are able to define their proposals in sufficient detail to enable consultation. We are also seeking external advice. For instance, Professor Sir George Alberti, National Clinical Director for Emergency Care, will be visiting the Trust on 2nd October to advise us of ways in which other hospitals have dealt with some of the issues that concern us.
However, I would like to confirm the principles that underpin all current discussion:
- All significant changes will be consulted on. Only if we were seriously concerned about patient safety would we act unilaterally, and then only to take temporary action to stabilise the situation until we could consult on a longer-term solution.
- Any proposals for change must be consistent with the Clinical Services Strategy.
- Any proposals must retain strong services on both the main hospital sites.
I hope that the above comments will reassure our staff and local communities that no immediate or unreasonable changes are proposed, and that our clinicians, and the managers who support them, should be given some time to dig deeply into the causes of their current concerns to find the best possible ways to improve patient services.
Lorraine Clifton
Chief Executive
29/9/03
