31 October 2007

Campaigners take fight right to the top



Campaigners fighting to save hospitals in West Sussex yesterday (30 October) descended on Downing Street and the Department of Health headquarters in Whitehall to lodge their protest as the end of the Fit for the Future consultation period nears.

Under plans put forward by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust and the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, hospitals like Worthing and Southlands and the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath could be downgraded and lose vital services such as consultant-led emergency, intensive care and consultant-led maternity.

Over 175,000 have signed petitions as part of the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) and the Support the Princess Royal campaigns and protesters took to the streets in Westminster to make that voice heard.

A hospital bed stacked with petitions was pushed around Westminster, past the House of Lords, House of Commons and Big Ben and down Whitehall to Richmond House, the headquarters of the Department of Health, where MPs handed in a certificate for health secretary Alan Johnson setting out the strength of public opposition and the number of signatures gathered in support of the campaigns.



The health secretary had been invited to speak to campaigners but failed to respond.

Six campaigners then went to Downing Street to submit to prime minister Gordon Brown a list of over 200 Sussex GPs who are opposed to the downgrade plans as well as a further certificate for the Prime Minister, again bearing the 175,000 figure.

Dr Herry Ashby, Cllr Jonathan Ash-Edwards and Sally Fox represented the Princess Royal. KWASH was represented by Rod Hotton, Cat Hedger and Eileen Forster.

The full petitions will be presented to the West Sussex Primary Care Trust ahead of the consultation close on 14 November so that they can be taken into account in the Fit for the Future decision making process.

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley, who attended the protest and went with campaigners to Downing Street, said: “This was a united show of support from campaigners across Worthing and Southlands and the Princess Royal. Local people want good local hospitals with consultant-led emergency and obstetric services. They march and sign in their thousands and hundreds of thousands. They must be listened to.”

Also attending was East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton who said: “The fight will not stop. This downgrading does not have the support of local people. It does not have the support of local clinicians. We have made this point loudly now to the PCT, to the Department of Health and to the Prime Minister. This mad attack on our hospitals must stop.”

Other MPs attending to show their support were Nicholas Soames, Nick Gibb, Nick Herbert, Norman Baker and Charles Hendry.

ENDS




26 October 2007

Campaigners take fight to Number 10

Campaigners fighting for the future of hospital services in Sussex are taking the battle to Westminster on Tuesday (30 October).

Representatives from the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) and the support the Princess Royal campaigns will present evidence of public and clinical to the proposed downgrading of hospitals in West Sussex. MPs backing the campaigns include Peter Bottomley, Tim Loughton, Nicholas Soames, Nick Herbert, Nick Gibb, Charles Hendry and Norman Baker.

Campaigners will travel on battle buses from Sussex to protest in Whitehall between 12 and 2pm. There will be a hospital bed push down Whitehall.

Petitions and letters setting out the overwhelming public and clinical opposition to the West Sussex Primary Care Trust’s hospital downgrade plans will be presented at Number 10 Downing Street and to the Department of Health.

Dr Herry Ashby, Cllr Jonathan Ash-Edwards and Sally Fox will be representing the Support the PRH campaign at Downing Street. The KWASH campaign will be represented by Rod Hotton, Cat Hedger and Eileen Forster.

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “The current options presented by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust at present are not acceptable. They downgrade local hospital services. The campaigns set up to fight for Worthing and Southlands Hospitals and the Princess Royal Hospital will be presenting a united front to the Prime Minister and to the Health Secretary that these cuts are utterly opposed.”

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: “There does seem to be some sign at long last that the mass opposition and expert evidence presented by both campaigns is getting through to health bosses. There is a new option under discussion that would potentially see core services retained both at Worthing and Southlands and the Princess Royal. That is welcome news but we must not be complacent. The consultation has been a sham. The overwhelming opposition must be made clear to the Prime Minister and the Department of Health.”

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames said: “Everyone apart from the local health authorities say this proposed downgrading has been a bad idea. GPs, nurses, midwives, hospital doctors – clinicians from every branch of the health service are opposed. Thousands have marched through the streets, hundreds of thousands have signed petitions. This overwhelming opposition must be listened to.”

ENDS

17 October 2007

Cautious optimism from campaigners as ‘option D’ proposed
 
Campaigners fighting to preserve services at Worthing and Southlands hospitals have welcomed with cautious optimism the new option being considered by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust as part of their Fit for the Future consultation.

At a public meeting at Worthing Pavilion on Monday (15 October), Worthing and Southlands Hospitals chief executive Stephen Cass and West Sussex Primary Care Trust chief executive John Wilderspin revealed recent discussions with clinicians had led to a new option being put forward – so-called ‘option D’.

This option could see consultant-led emergency services retained at Worthing Hospital and St Richards Hospital in Chichester, although discussions to safeguard consultant-led maternity services still continue.

For over a year, the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign has been urging primary care trust and strategic health authority bosses to re-think their long standing plans to downgrade hospital services in West Sussex. Under two of the three options currently being consulted on (options A – C), Worthing Hospital would be downgraded.

The plans and the consultation have come under intense criticism amidst fears that decisions had already been made and after it emerged that there was no clinical support for the proposals. A KWASH survey also revealed the West Sussex Primary Care Trust had not consulted with GPs who were also opposed to the downgrade plans.

Clinicians also raised serious clinical safety concerns and warned that the lives of both emergency patients and mothers to be would be placed at risk if emergency and maternity service downgrades went ahead.

Campaigners have been calling for fresh talks between clinicians and health bosses and now it appears some progress is being made with the proposal of option D.

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “KWASH campaigners have asked health bosses to speak to local clinicians and to consider and choose plans that have their backing. We have been clear from the outset that if changes are proposed to local health services that would be an improvement for local people and had the backing of clinicians then we would support them. We are not there yet, but this new proposal is progress towards where we want to be.

“More detailed discussion needs to happen. At last there are some encouraging signs that the message we have been drumming home for the last 18-months is starting to get through.”

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: “Clearly there is a way forward that would mean both Worthing and Chichester can keep consultant-led emergency services. Our position on maternity has not changed – we are still clear that consultant-led maternity services must also remain.

“We are cautiously optimistic. The PCT have slowly come round to the idea that they must talk to the clinicians and we give our backing to those discussions. Whether the PCT will now listen remains to be seen.”


ENDS


10 October 2007

Promises from chancellor are cold comfort say hospital campaigners 


Clinicians from the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospital Campaign (KWASH) have questioned the sincerity of yesterday’s announcement of extra funding for the NHS by the Chancellor of the Exchequer by highlighting the continuing threat of savage cuts posed to their local hospital.

Despite the promised increase in budget for the health service to a record £110 billion a year by 2010-11, local health care bosses are continuing to hold the knife over services at the financially stable and high performing facilities at Worthing Hospital.

Those departments under threat include a consultant led maternity unit – offering mothers the best standards of care. This threat remains in place despite calls earlier yesterday by four Royal Colleges for increased funding and staff numbers for maternity on the NHS.

Dr Colin Spring, Consultant in Intensive Care at Worthing Hospital said;

“It seems a sad irony that as the Government announces welcome extra funding for our National Health Service, local health managers continue to press ahead with plans to close high performing and financially stable services at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex.

Extra funding promises from the centre will be of cold comfort to patients, including expectant mothers, at a local level who will face longer travel times if their hospital is downgraded or closed based on misdirected policy”.

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS

1) The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospital Campaign (KWASH) is supported by local Members of Parliament Peter Bottomley, Nick Gibb, Nick Herbert and Tim Loughton and is backed by all local political parties.

2) The West Sussex Primary Care Trust is currently holding a public consultation on options for hospital reconfigurations. Two of the three options presented to the public involve the significant downgrading of the consultant-led maternity unit at Worthing Hospital.

The consultation ends on November 14.

3) The Pre Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review announced yesterday by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling MP indicated increased funding for the National Health Service to reach a level of £110 billion by 2010-11


9 October 2007

Hospital fight clinicians support calls for more maternity staff

Clinicians supporting the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Campaign (KWASH) have welcomed today’s report “Safer childbirth”, by the four Royal Colleges for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Midwives; Anaesthetists; and Paediatricians.

The report calls for more midwives and obstetricians to be hired by the NHS to ensure the safety of both mother and child.

Their comments come as local health managers in West Sussex are pushing ahead with plans to slash maternity services at Worthing Hospital – forcing expectant mothers to travel much longer distances to give birth.

Mr James English, Consultant Obstetrician based at Worthing Hospital said;

“For years, we have known that more staff are needed in our hard-pressed maternity units. Yet the Government’s solution to the problem of staff shortages is instead to close our maternity units down.

“This centralisation is without evidence, and will only worsen outcomes for mother and baby. We have anecdotal evidence that an undesirable number of births are taking place at the side of the road in West Sussex. The Government’s sticking-plaster attempts to solve national staffing shortages mean this situation will only get worse.

“No-one wants maternity units to close. Instead, we need more staff to make the existing units viable.”

Peter Bottomley MP – a key supporter of the KWASH campaign – added;

“The Royal Colleges underline what we already know: that the way to achieve better maternity services, and greater choice for women, is more midwives – not the closure of existing maternity services which are already seeing more and more demands on them.

“We will continue fighting to save our maternity unit at Worthing Hospital.”

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS

1) The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospital Campaign (KWASH) is supported by local Members of Parliament Peter Bottomley, Nick Gibb, Nick Herbert and Tim Loughton and is backed by all local political parties.

2) The West Sussex Primary Care Trust is currently holding a public consultation on options for hospital reconfigurations. Two of the three options presented to the public involve the significant downgrading of the consultant-led maternity unit at Worthing Hospital.

This is despite the number of deliveries at Worthing Hospital’s maternity unit having increased by 8% in the last four years (from 2,278 in the 2001-02 to 2,463 in 2005-06) (Department of Health, NHS maternity statistics, 26 June 2007).

The consultation ends on November 14.

3) The report issued today is entitled “Safer childbirth” and was published by the Royal Colleges for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Midwives, Anaesthetists and Paediatricians.


9 October 2007

 Campaigners call for massive show of support at last Worthing public meeting

Campaigners fighting to safeguard vital services at Worthing and Southlands Hospitals are calling on people from Worthing and district and across Sussex to turn out in force on Monday 15 October for the last public meeting being held in Worthing by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust as part of their Fit for the Future public consultation.

The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign is warning that the PCT have again failed to make appropriate arrangements to hear the views of the many thousands opposed to their downgrade plans.

The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign is organising a movement from Homefield Park to the Pavilion where the meeting will be held. The People's walk will begin at 6pm ahead of the meeting which runs from 7pm – 9pm.

The venue has been switched to the Pavilion Theatre from the Charmandean Centre after hundreds of campaigners were denied entry to a previous meeting. This was despite warnings from MPs that the venue was likely to be too small to accommodate all those wanting to express their opposition.

The failure to provide adequate overspill facilities previously was branded a ‘public relations disaster’. The last big public meeting at Worthing Pavilion in August 2006 attracted 7,000 protesters. The KWASH campaign then provided speakers in Steyne Gardens to relay the meeting to the many thousands unable to make it into the venue which holds around 900. Health bosses have rejected suggestions that these arrangements be repeated citing health and safety reasons.

Under two of the three options on the table, Worthing Hospital will be downgraded to local general hospital status and lose services including consultant-led emergency services, consultant-led maternity and intensive care.

Campaigners are calling on local residents to show their interest by gathering at the pier from 6.30 for 7, while knowing that not all will be admitted.

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “Throughout the campaign the turnout even at what were supposed to be some of the smaller public meetings has been hugely impressive. People have turned out in their thousands to oppose these plans and this is the last big public meeting in Worthing before the consultation closes in November.

“Another huge show of support will be impressive. It could save our hospital services. Even though only around 900 will be able to make it into the Pavilion, a massive turnout will again get the message through to the PCT that these plans are opposed for good clinical reasons by local patients and staff.

“There is still just over a month to get your responses in to the consultation and we will be holding further events before the close on 14 November but this is an opportunity ahead of the last PCT meeting for a huge show of support for the campaign.”

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton added: “People power can still win through. There was a different PCT chief executive for the last march to the Pavilion Theatre over a year ago. That boss was moved so he didn’t have to follow through his downgrade plans. We need a similar show of support again to show John Wilderspin the new chief executive that we don’t want this and that Worthing and Southlands simply must keep vital services.

“Don’t leave it to other people – we need every single person to attend and to do their bit to help KWASH fight the cuts.

“The PCT is probably hoping that by not bothering to provide any audio feed to those not able to get in that people will stay at home. Don’t let them win, and turn out in force to send a message to them: if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

ENDS



4 October 2007

Worthing to Brighton? No thanks

Worthing consultant Dr David Uncles took to the A27 in a decommissioned ambulance to highlight the traffic problems people face travelling to Brighton.  The trip was reported in the Worthing Herald - click here to see the video footage on the web.



4 October 2007

Hospitals campaign attacks Darzi review
 
Commenting on Lord Darzi’s review of NHS services, published today, West Worthing MP Peter Bottomley, speaking on behalf of the all party Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals campaign (KWASH), said:

“Lord Darzi’s report gives little comfort to hospitals like Worthing that are fighting proposed cutbacks and closures.  In the end he preaches the same ‘centralise where necessary’ mantra used by local NHS bureaucrats to justify cutting health services.

“While Lord Darzi insists that changes to local services should be clinically-led, the reality is that our local health service hierarchy continues to override the wishes of clinicians and local people who all want Worthing Hospital to stay open.

“Lord Darzi was kept away from West Sussex by health bosses on his recent visit to the South and has said he knows little of what is happening in Worthing.  He should visit and find out.

“Today’s report has changed nothing.  We will continue the fight.”Notes to editors1. In his report today, Lord Darzi writes that:

‘Not all of the conclusions of my review of London’s health services will apply nationally, but one which I believe does is the principle of “localise where possible, centralise where necessary”.’

Source: Department of Health, Our NHS, Our Future, 4 October 2007, page 32.

2. West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) is currently consulting on proposals including the possible downgrading of Worthing Hospital. In its most recent consultation, published 26 June 2007, it explains that:

‘To make sure that patients get the best care from specialist staff we will need to centralise some services.’

Source: West Sussex PCT, Fit for the future, 26 June 2007, page 10.

3. Lord Darzi also explains in his report:

‘We should ensure that any major change in the pattern of local NHS hospital services is clinically led.’

Source: Department of Health, Our NHS, Our Future, 4 October 2007, page 7.

However, the proposed change to Worthing Hospital is not being clinically-led: the majority of clinicians at Worthing Hospital are opposed to its closure, as are local GPs.

4. The all-party Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospital Campaign (KWASH) is supported by all local MPs, together with representatives of all political parties, clinicians and many thousands of patients and other local people

5. The proposed closure is not even evidence-based. The West Sussex Primary Care Trust describes the sentence ‘patients’ lives will be at risk if it takes longer for the ambulance to transport them to A&E’ as a ‘myth’.

Source: South East Coast Strategic Health Authority Fit for the Future website; available here:http://www.southeastcoastfff.nhs.uk/getdoc/983ea4f2-fbeb-4588-8b48-bc16fa61d64d/FAQs.aspx.

This is despite a report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in September 2007 reinforcing a study by the University of Sheffield which found that the risk of death for some conditions rises by one per cent for every six miles one has to travel to an A&E department.

Source: Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Acute health care services, September 2007.



2 October 2007

Fit for whose future? Hospital consultants  publish 54-page response to consultation document.
 
A major report which highlights the inadequacies of  the Fit for the Future consultation process, spells out the overwhelming lack of public and clinical  support and also raises serious issues about the financial arguments for change has been published today, Tuesday, 2^nd October by two leading hospital consultants.

Lui Forni and Richard Venn both consultants at Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Trust will present their ‘evidence-based’ analysis to the West Sussex  Health Scrutiny Committee tomorrow, Wednesday, 3^rd October. The 54-page documents entitled ‘Fit For Whose Future?’ refutes  many of the arguments for change contained in the West Sussex Primary Care Trust consultation document.

Consultant Lui forni says:  “Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Trust must continue to provide major acute services for the population of West Sussex. Our report clearly states why.  The Primary Care Trust  cannot continue with a consultation which has no support from clinicians, GPs and the public.”

A major section of the report urges caution particularly regarding the configuration of maternity services and recommends that the PCT must listen to lessons learnt from previous reconfigurations.

You can read the whole report by clicking here.


25 September 2007

PCT myth busting statement ‘absolute nonsense’, say hospital campaigners

Campaigners fighting against plans to downgrade Worthing and Southlands Hospitals have responded in amazement at the West Sussex Primary Care Trust’s ‘war on myths’ surrounding their Fit for the Future consultation.

Health bosses have released a statement saying they are “waging war on unfounded myths” as they come under increased pressure to halt their consultation and begin fresh talks with local clinicians. 

The West Sussex Primary Care Trust has been challenged by local clinicians – including hospital consultants and GPs – to show they have clinical support for their proposals to cut consultant-led emergency and maternity services in West Sussex.

Bosses have not been able to name a single independent clinician that supports the plans whilst the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign has published a list of GPs opposed to the plans to add to the hospital consultants already on record as opposing.

MPs Tim Loughton and Peter Bottomley have called for the consultation to be halted and new plans developed which have local clinical backing.

The PCT statement says it is a myth that hospitals are being either closed or downgraded.  However, they do not deny that under two of the three proposed options, consultant-led emergency and maternity services at Worthing Hospital close and under the other those services would close at St Richards.

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: “To say you are not proposing to downgrade services when you do not deny you are planning to remove consultant-led emergency and maternity services from hospitals is just ludicrous.

“Worthing Hospital currently has those services on-site.  Under two of the three options on the table they will be removed.  They can call it whatever they like but there is no doubt whatsoever that it is a downgrading.  To try and say otherwise is living in cloud cuckoo land. 

“People shouldn’t be surprised.  Given some of the statements at recent public meetings that seems to be precisely where PCT bosses are living.”

The PCT go on to say it is a myth that maternity plans will reduce choice for pregnant women.

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “This is absolute nonsense.  At the moment expectant mothers can choose to have their baby in an excellent consultant-led maternity unit in Worthing.  The proposals would close that unit and that choice would no longer exist.  How is that not reducing choice?

“In fact the Worthing maternity unit is so good they have people from Brighton choosing to go there.  If the unit closes that choice will also be taken away.  Not reducing choice?  Absolute rubbish."

Finally the PCT say it is a myth that patients’ lives are at risk if it takes longer for an ambulance to get to accident and emergency.

Peter Bottomley added: “If it doesn’t matter how long an ambulance takes to get a patient to hospital then why do they have blue lights on the top and sirens?  Of course ambulance travel times matter.

“The PCT wants to downgrade hospitals, reduce choice for expectant mothers and reorganise services so that emergency travel times will be longer.  They can try and dress it up any way they want but that is what is happening.  Eveyone should respond to the consultation by 14 November and tell the PCT exactly what they think.”

ENDS

25 September 2007

Campaigners welcome prime minister's promise to hear their concerns

At Prime Minister’s question time today, Gordon Brown pledged to meet Nick Gibb, MP for Bognor Regis & Littlehampton to discuss the future of Worthing Hospital & St Richard’s Hospital.

KWASH campaigners have welcomed the promised meeting. It comes on top of the hard work over many months of all local political parties, clinicians and thousands of local people to raise awareness of the plight of Worthing Hospital.

Dr Colin Spring, Consultant in Intensive Care at Worthing Hospital said;

“I am delighted that Gordon Brown has agreed to listen to the concerns of clinicians who work at Worthing Hospital and all the thousands of local people who are actively supporting the campaign.

Our case deserves to be heard at the highest level in order to save this crucial local health resource. I hope the Prime Minister is able to see the mistaken direction of policy in West Sussex which is threatening to close or seriously downgrade services at financially sound hospitals– a hospital which has benefited from the extra investment pumped into the NHS since 1997.”

Nick Gibb MP added;

“It was refreshing to hear the Prime Minister’s promise to meet with me to discuss the severe and pressing threat to Worthing Hospital and St Richard’s Hospital. I am hoping that all the West Sussex MPs including Peter Bottomley and Tim Loughton will also be invited to the meeting.

“I will now seek the earliest possible opportunity to see him, so that he hears the concerns and fears of my constituents. People in West Sussex deserve better than to have essential health services closed and relocated against their wishes, and I hope Gordon Brown takes this message to heart.”

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS

1) The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospital Campaign (KWASH) is supported by local Members of Parliament Peter Bottomley, Nick Gibb, Nick Herbert and Tim Loughton and is backed by all local political parties, clinicians, and local people.

2) The West Sussex Primary Care Trust is currently holding a public consultation on options for hospital reconfigurations. Two of the three options presented to the public involve the significant downgrading of the consultant-led maternity unit at Worthing Hospital.

The consultation ends on November 14.

3) The Prime Minister offered to meet with Mr Gibb to discuss the threats posed to health services in his constituency during Prime Minister’s Question Time on 10 October 2007

3) For all media enquiries please contact Owen Bethell on 07977155581



9 October 2007

PCT admit GPs not involved in developing downgrade plans as 1/3 of all GPs sign up in opposition

Bosses at the West Sussex Primary Care Trust yesterday admitted that local GPs were not involved in developing their plans to downgrade hospitals in West Sussex. 

They also hit out at GPs for voicing their concerns and accused them of doing so ‘at the 11^th hour’.At a public meeting at the Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham last night (24 September), PCT directors Brian Hughes and Carol Gareze were faced with criticism from three local GPs: Dr Tom von Biel, Dr Howard Bentley and Dr Chris Huckstep amidst fresh calls from campaigners to halt their Fit for the Future consultation.

When asked why GPs had not been involved Mr Hughes said that the PCT had tried to find out what they thought about their plans but was unable to.  He blamed the GPs saying they had not wanted to get involved.

Two weeks ago the Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign revealed the early results of a survey of local GPs.  24 were prepared to go on the record as opposing the plans.  In the last week another 11 have asked to be added to the list.  A third of the GPs in the Worthing and Adur area now say they oppose the PCT’s Fit for the Future plans.

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton, who attended the Shoreham meeting, said: “It is quite a revelation from Mr Hughes that the PCT did not have the engagement of GPs in the first place.  They have always tried to claim clinical support so to now turn round and say they tried but failed to get GPs on board is owning up to a shocking deficiency in the consultation.

“It is completely untrue that GPs do not want to be involved.  Mr Hughes says that they weren’t interested but the PCT can’t have tried that hard.  How difficult was it for the KWASH campaign to write a letter to each GP and ask for their views?  Not very is the answer.  A third of the 138 have told us what they think within the last fortnight and more are coming in every day.

“The truth of the matter is that the PCT do not have the support of the GPs – or any other group of clinicians.  They never did, and now they tell us that they never bothered to find out what GPs think in the first place.  The consultation is flawed and must be stopped.”

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley added: “The PCT set hurdle barriers to filter out options they did not want and now it is clear they did not involve vital doctors.  Surely there must be a pause, a rethink and then if necessary a fresh consultation?”48 GPs from the Worthing and Adur area have now replied to the KWASH survey.  The results show:

• 46 (96 percent) had not spoken to Dr Andrew Foulkes, the chairman of the West Sussex PCT’s professional executive committee who is the only doctor on record as supporting the plans;

• 47 (98 percent) said they had not been consulted directly by the PCT in any way;

• 46 (96 percent) said they do not support the Fit for the Future plans;

• 45 (94 percent) said they thought it would be better for their patients if there were two hospitals with consultant-led A & E and maternity services in West Sussex; and

• 44 (91 percent) would like to see fresh talks.

GPs were given the choice of remaining anonymous if they wish, however the 11 responding in the last week were all happy to go on the record in opposition bringing the total to 35 – a quarter of local GPs.  The 11 are:

·        Dr D Clarke
·        Dr A Ruffer
·        Dr A Goossens
·        Dr Lynch
·        Dr K Patel
·        Dr R Nines
·        Dr D Starbuck
·        Dr J Newman
·        Dr N Lyons
·        Dr J Ellwood
·        Dr D Crosby

This is in addition to the 24 named last week who were: -

·        Dr R L Woodward Court
·        Dr A Cook
·        Dr A Funnell
·        Dr S Pegge
·        Dr G Tucker
·        Dr J Bartlett
·        Dr C Varty
·        Dr R Sayers
·        Dr T von Biel
·        Dr E Archer
·        Dr S Campbell
·        Dr A Cairns
·        Dr N Trounce
·        Dr Farrer-Brown
·        Dr C Anderson
·        Dr B Allan
·        Dr R Orpin
·        Dr M Haque
·        Dr T Critchfield
·        Dr J Peskett
·        Dr R Saghani
·        Dr Duckering
·        Dr Shlosberg
·        Dr J Montgomery 

ENDS

20 September 2007

20 September 2007

Strong evidence is emerging that the West Sussex Primary Care Trust’s plans to downgrade hospital services at Worthing and Southlands Hospitals are opposed by a range of local clinicians.

Local GPs are the latest willing to speak out against the PCT’s plans with 24 prepared to go on-the-record in opposition.They join hospital consultants at Worthing and Southlands including Dr Lui Forni, Dr Richard Venn, Dr Colin Spring, Dr Mark Signy and Dr David Uncles whilst West Sussex PCT chief executive John Wilderspin, at a public meeting last night in Shoreham, refused to say and refused to publish a list of which doctors support the plans.

The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH) campaign recently wrote to the 140 GPs who practice in Worthing and Adur asking them if they had been consulted and what they thought of the plans.  As of today (20 September) 34 have responded.

- 32 said Dr Andrew Foulkes, the chairman of the West Sussex PCT’s professional executive committee who is the only doctor on record as supporting the plans, had not spoken with them about it;
- 33 said they had not been consulted directly by the PCT in any way;
- 31 said they do not support the Fit for the Future plans; and
- 32 said they thought it would be better for their patients if there were two hospitals with consultant-led A & E and maternity services in West Sussex.

GPs were given the option to remain anonymous if they wished, and nine chose to do so.  The KWASH campaign is publishing the names of the 24 willing to go on record.  They are:-

- Dr R L Woodward Court
- Dr A Cook
- Dr A Funnell
- Dr S Pegge
- Dr G Tucker
- Dr J Bartlett
- Dr C Varty
- Dr R Sayers
- Dr T von Biel
- Dr E Archer
- Dr S Campbell
- Dr A Cairns
- Dr N Trounce
- Dr Farrer-Brown
- Dr C Anderson
- Dr B Allan
- Dr R Orpin
- Dr M Haque
- Dr T Critchfield
- Dr J Peskett
- Dr R Saghani
- Dr Duckering
- Dr Shlosberg
- Dr J Montgomery

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “This is more direct evidence that the Fit for the Future plans are clinically opposed.  These are all expert clinicians who work hard and spend their days seeing patients.  They know what is best for their patients and they are opposed.  The PCT chief executive says that his plans must be based on the evidence – here is direct evidence that he does not have clinical backing.

“Now is the time to stop this consultation and start the genuine dialogue with these experts that should have happened in the first place."

Worthing consultant Dr Richard Venn last week challenged the PCT to ‘put up or shut up’ over their claims to have clinical support and at a public meeting in Shoreham on Monday evening, chief executive John Wilderspin said he would not be publishing a list of the clinicians he claims support him.  His response was to look at the clinical groups the PCT ran which would explain the clinical support that existed.

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: “The clinical reference groups were a joke.  Dr Forni described them at yesterdays public meeting as like being asked to pick a new car but only being allowed to decide on the colour.  There is no basis on which the PCT can claim those groups represent clinical support for the plans.

“The KWASH campaign can prove there is widespread clinical opposition.  At the meeting yesterday the PCT bosses tried to retreat to the position that ‘there are a range of views’ but that is not true.  We are publishing cast-iron evidence that the plans do not have the support of local clinicians.  The PCT have been asked to publish their evidence and they can’t.  When will they stop this madness?”

Peter Bottomley MP, Tim Loughton MP and KWASH chairman Cllr Major Tom Wye also yesterday submitted evidence to the West Sussex County Council Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee tomorrow.

20 September 2007