Chorley A&E, debt write offs, and the consultation farce

Chorley A&E, debt write offs, and the consultation farce...

11th July 2020

Ironic isn't it, no sooner have the Lancashire hospital trust received a £215 million 'debt write-off' [loans cancelled], the hospital board announce its plans to build a four-storey, state-of-the-art extension at Chorley Hospital.

The local democracy reporting team also reported this week that a public consultation into the future of the accident and emergency department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital could begin within weeks of the unit reopening in September

No Local Plan to Retain A&E at Chorley

The local 'NHS transformation' plans titled 'Our Health Our Care' & public consultation are due to continue next month which implies all the trusts efforts (and plans) have been towards utilising their get out of debt card, constructing a four-storey building, converting Chorley hospital into a step down cottage hospital with pre-planned elective ops but no A&E, and accelerating progress on the Integrated Care Program.

It's a myth that Chorley & South Ribble hospital is getting its A&E back since it hasn't had a type 1 A&E since April 2016.

What Chorley hospital will be getting back from Preston, assuming the virus doesn't recur, is the staff that were moved to Preston to deal with the coronovirus uptake in March.

In August 2016 the a group established by the trust & CCG called the Systems Resilience Group (SRG ) agreed that "it has no other realistic option but to maintain the current service of an 8am until 8pm urgent care service at Chorley Hospital as the best way of ensuring the delivery of safe and sustainable care for patients".  This will be reviewed again in April 2017.

Chorley hasn't had an A&E since then, only the privately run urgent care centre with no overnight fracture x-ray diagnostics.

This week we've seen what little value is placed on 'public consultation'. NHS Managers in South West London and Surrey have announced their decision this week to downgrade two existing Major Acute Hospitals - Epsom hospital in Surrey and St Helier hospital in South West London - BOTH will lose ALL of their Acute Services.

So in summary, it's only clinically viable to open the Chorley A&E if the trust board wish it to be such. Currently, the trust have been criticised by the county councils health scrutiny committee for failing to provide evidence the trust have undertaken an extensive recruitment campaign to hire mid-grade doctors to enable re-opening of Chorley A&E.

And with the millions proposed for a new 4-storey building at Chorley, along with the local Our Health Our Care plans to centralise and have a single A&E at Preston (short term), the chances of retaining the Chorley A&E are down to everyone across the land coming together to take action. That includes trade unions, community partnerships, volunteer groups, community NHS campaigns, councillors, MPs, supporting GPs and so on.

As we've seen with the Huddersfield Infirmary fiasco and now the Epson & St Helier hospital service closures, consultations are a farce, and as long as the Lancashire hospital trust play the staff shortage card, it appears they will continue to push the local NHS privatisation plans through just as the government intended...

---