NEWS RELEASES
Horsham District Council's response to the NHS Fit for the Future consultation.
12th November 2007
“FIT FOR THE FUTURE”
MODERNISING HEALTHCARE IN WEST SUSSEX
RESPONSE BY HORSHAM DISTRICT COUNCIL
Horsham District Council welcomes the opportunity to be able to respond to your consultation paper on modernising healthcare in West Sussex. The Council has carefully considered the detail of your consultation exercise. It has also listened to the concerns that have been raised by the residents of Horsham District both directly to the Council itself and those raised directly with the PCT at the various public consultation meetings. The Council shares the concerns raised at those meetings concerning poor access to services including A&E that currently exists and that the consultation does nothing to address this but only serves to make the situation worse.
The Council remains deeply concerned that at present no proposals have come forward in respect of services in Surrey and therefore the Council is making its comments on the proposals for West Sussex without the ability to ensure that any proposals for Surrey are in synergy with those for West Sussex. As you will be aware the Council represents over 125,000 residents who access your healthcare services and over half of these are reliant on services provided in Surrey making it imperative that the Council takes a strategic overview of service changes affecting all its residents. In addition the Council shares those concerns expressed in Surrey about the impact on services provided for the residents of Surrey that is caused by the significant number of West Sussex residents who have to access services particularly at Redhill.
Horsham’s District is made up of a number of discreet communities that access the most diverse provision of maternity and acute based healthcare of any District and Borough Council in West Sussex. These communities have been poorly served in terms of maternity and acute hospital-based care for over two decades. Over this time they have witnessed a continual diminution of services, sometimes by stealth and sometimes in the face of overt public and professional opposition.
Currently, all of the District’s population have to travel unsatisfactory distances to access services some of which are of poor quality and provided by organisations which continue to experience severe quality and financial difficulties. The ongoing series of reviews over the last 20 years have failed to address those issues other than to leave a series of failed initiatives, mounting debts and rising public frustration.
The Council remains concerned about the current performance of South East Coast Ambulance Trust particularly in the rural areas of Horsham’s District and has reservations about the ability of the Ambulance Trust to fulfil its enhanced role in the proposed new model of healthcare, without significant investment in terms of money and time.
None of the options put forward in “Fit for the Future” address these issues. All of them will neither deliver adequate access to maternity services or acute hospital provision for each and every one of those communities nor deliver any real benefit to the residents of those communities. There is mounting evidence coming forward, some of it commissioned by the Government to challenge the assumptions on which your decisions have been based. In respect of maternity services the options put forward will not deliver a regime that is either accessible to mothers-to-be or clinically safe for them. Unless the issues of transport and access of services are addressed then lives will be put at risk and fatalities will occur.
In the light of this, the Council believes, that the magnitude of the problems faced by the NHS in delivering maternity and acute care in West Sussex is such that, rather than trying to patch up problems with a sticking plaster, radical surgery is needed that will address the issue of primary and community care before reconfiguring maternity and acute hospital provision so as to provide:-
- A robust and sustainable local health economy for the longer term, and
- Equity of treatment for all.
Consequently, the Council considers that the consultation paper should have:-
- Positively addressed the contribution of and potential for primary and community care to deliver local healthcare by putting forward fully-costed and time-targeted proposals for primary and community care. thereby reducing the need to travel and demand on acute based services
- Strategically addressed the healthcare requirements of the population of Horsham (and Crawley) and the impact of these on services in Surrey.
- Addressed the demographic issues facing the Horsham locality and therefore, their impact on the demands on NHS services in the area in the future.
- Addressed disease prevention and health improvement thereby reducing long term demand on the NHS.
- Ensured equity of provision for the residents of West Sussex as a whole.
- Addressed the issue of access facing the residents of the Horsham area as a whole and in particular, the access issues faced by those living in rural areas and thereby the impact that poor access has on the future health of the population.
- Addressed the financial issues that the local health economy faces now, its financial sustainability for the longer term and the level of necessary capital investment to ensure that the appropriate changes when agreed are carried through
- Addressed the size of investment that will be required in the South East Coast Ambulance Trust to enable it to firstly deliver the level of service required now and more importantly to enable it to fulfil its enhanced role in the new model of healthcare.
- Addressed the specific issue of access to appropriate A&E facilities for ALL the residents of Horsham’s district.
- Addressed the fact that current maternity and acute based hospital care for the residents of Horsham District is not “Fit for the Present”.
As such, the Council has concluded that the Consultation released by the PCT is fundamentally flawed as none of the proposed reconfigurations can be “Fit for the Future”.
In addition the Council questions why the PCT rejected outright the suggestion of a new acute facility in the northeast of West Sussex to serve the large and fast growing population base in that area?
In the light of all this therefore the Council urges the PCT to bring forward proposals for improved Primary and Community care and requests that the PCT reconsider the proposal for a new acute facility in the northeast of the County through the Option Assessment Panel chaired by Sir Graeme Catto. The Council would be willing to assist in this review through providing information that it and other organisations have developed.
The Council is aware that, as a result of the work being carried out by Sir Graeme Catto, one or more alternative options may replace those options currently being consulted on. In those circumstances the Council considers it essential that it is re-consulted on any additional options that are considered to ensure that they address all of the issues set out above.
Set out as attachments to this letter are the background papers that the Council has considered in coming to its conclusions and those that are not currently held by the PCT are submitted as evidence to the consultation exercise.
Yours sincerely
On behalf of Horsham District Council
Councillor Mrs Elizabeth Kitchen
Leader
cc: Rt Hon Francis Maude MP
Nick Herbert MP
Contact: Head of Public Health and Licensing at Horsham District Council, on 01403 215439 or email publichealth.licensing@horsham.gov.uk
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
Crawley and Horsham Council: Response to “Fit for the Future” Consultation, Mayden Consulting, November 2007.
Analysis by Cllr. Crosbie of Fit for the Future Issues.
Horsham Hospital League of Friends: response to the “Fit for the Future” Consultation.
North Horsham Parish Council: Response to the “Fit for the Future” Consultation.
Steyning Health Centre: Response from GPs and Elected Representatives, October 2007.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust: Impact of the Fit for the Future programme on neighbouring Trusts, June 2007
South East County Leaders: Taken for Granted: Why Britain Needs a Fair Deal for the South East, Research Report by Local Government Futures Ltd and Oxford Economics Ltd. September 2007
West Sussex County Council and West Sussex PCT: Creating an NHS Fit for the Future: Population Projections and Birth trends in West Sussex to 2016
West Sussex County Council: Highways and Transport Accessibility Strategy
West Sussex County Council Briefing Note on Fit for the Future:
- Creating an NHS fit for the Future
- The Financial Case: Comments
- Research Results: NHS Resource Allocation: Does West Sussex Get its Fair Share?
West Sussex Fit for the Future Consultation Document, and all supporting documents available at http://www.southeastcoastfff.nhs.uk/