Huddersfield hospital closure program, is Chorley hospital next?

The Lancashire hospital trust running Chorley & South Ribble hospital are considering following the same program that proposed closing Huddersfield Royal Infirmary last year.

On the 20th of October last year, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, run by Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, was proposed by the local CCGs to be closed and demolished under their STP program titled 'Right Time Right Care Right Place'. 

Due to similarities, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (LTH), the trust who run Chorley & South Ribble hospital are now considering following the same program as Calderdale, and are discussing joint communications with the Calderdale & Huddersfield trust. From the LTH board report....

"A slide presentation had also been circulated which provided an outline of a visit that had been undertaken to Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to discuss their [STP] programme which was similar in content to the Our Health Our Care programme".

A patient safety risk had been introduced as the Preston Primary Care Centre group were not prepared to support out-of-hours cover at Chorley and the Chorley Medics had relocated from the Chorley and South Ribble Hospital site [to Euxton]. Risks highlighted through loss of income and financial consequences in relation to the urgent care centre service. 

NOT ENOUGH BEDS - OOPS, WE'VE CLOSED THEM

Lancashire Teaching Hospital trusts October 2016 board report states that 78 out of 90 beds had been introduced following the CQC inspection in July 2014 but have now been decommissioned. 

Ironically, the Lancashire Trust now claim there is not enough capacity in acute services which is impacting directly on the delivery of key access targets.

Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) related contracts have been brought forward and have now been signed off thus accelerating plans for privatisation before any public consultation periods start. NHS England are basically holding hospital trusts to ransom if the trusts don't meet financial targets by fixed dates.

This will inevitably result in trusts cutting corners resulting in poor quality patient care.

Today (29th April 2017), hundreds of campaigners turned out in Huddersfield to protest against the undemocratic way their hospital had been earmarked for closure. And they are not going to let it go when lives are at risk.

Our NHS campaign here in Chorley has a lot in common with Huddersfield's NHS hospital campaign, and today was the start of a united effort to emphasise just how important our NHS is to us and that services must remain local at all costs.

The NHS is always there when we need it. Now it needs us to prevent it from being sold-off to those who put profit before people. We must never let this happen...