NEWS RELEASES
New group considers major health changes
15th December 2006
THE future structure of health services in our region has been the subject of much debate and controversy.
We have had all the good news of modernisation at Horsham Hospital and new health centres going ahead at Pulborough and Steyning, whilst some of the main Acute Hospitals and Accident & Emergency centres on our borders appear to face threats of cuts, or even closures. Then there is the renewed campaign for a new major hospital at Pease Pottage to serve the North Sussex area of Horsham and Crawley.
What are we to make of it all?
We can be confident that primary care in our area is of a high order and getting better. What concerns us most immediately is the future shape of Acute Hospitals in Sussex and Surrey, currently the subject of a major review announced last May by the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority in its discussion document “Creating an NHS Fit For The Future”.
This document makes it clear that changes are being prepared to meet new policies, to provide better value for money and to take account of developments in medical technology. The emphasis will be the provision of more services in the community and in people’s homes with the likelihood of fewer and smaller Acute Hospitals.
The Council's Cabinet Member for Community Partnerships and Housing Services, Cllr Vivien Lyth, and our chief public health officer have already done much preparatory work and have had two meetings with health managers, with at least one more planned before the finalised Consultation Paper, containing detailed proposals, is published. This paper is expected early in 2007, to be followed by three months of public consultation.
To help establish the Council’s response to this important paper, we have set up a new Health Service Advisory Group which met in November and which will continue to monitor the situation. We expect to be able to draw on expertise from the medical profession, parish councils, neighbourhood councils and patients representatives too. We have a seminar on 29 January for the whole Council and we will be inviting parish and neighbourhood councillors to join us. Here, we will be seeking to a joint approach with other districts across West Sussex.
The Advisory Group has agreed on five key aims: that prevention should underpin all service planning and provision assumptions; that services should be integrated across geography, setting and organisation to ensure a holistic approach to the patient; that services should be provided as close to the patient as is clinically safe; that all proposals should build on the success achieved to date in the provision of Primary and Community Care facilities; that the integral role of the District Council in health issues and provision should be recognised.
The future shape of the health service in West Sussex, and further afield, is of paramount importance to us all and we need to be fully prepared to make our views known when the main proposals are published early in the New Year.
Councillor Bernard Baldwin, The Chairman, Horsham District Council, Park North, North Street, Horsham, RH12 1RL.
Email: contactchairman@horsham.gov.uk