Cumbria Health consultation Public Meetings

The NHS consultation on the future of healthcare in Cumbria is now up and running and details can be found on the success regime's consultation website at

http://www.wnecumbria.nhs.uk/

You can read the consultation document online at
 http://www.wnecumbria.nhs.uk/consultation-document/

and comment on it online at http://www.wnecumbria.nhs.uk/consultation-questionaire/


The following public meetings have so far been announced. IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT THERE IS A GOOD TURNOUT AT THESE.
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• Silloth, Wednesday 12th October – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – Solway Technology Community College, Liddell Street, CA7 4DD

• Millom, Thursday 13th October – 1pm to 3pm – Guide Hall, St Georges Road, LA18 4DD

• Appleby, Thursday 13th October – 7pm to 9pm – Public Hall, Appleby Town Council, Boroughate near Moot Hall, CA16 6XB

• Carlisle, Tuesday 18th October – 1pm to 3pm – Ballroom, Crown & Mitre Hotel, 4 English Street, CA3 8HZ

• Whitehaven, Wednesday 19th October – 1pm to 3pm – United Reform Church, James Street, CA28 7HZ

• Maryport, Wednesday 19th October – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – The Wave Centre, Irish Street, CA15 8AD

• Penrith, Tuesday 25th October – 1pm to 3pm – Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, CA11 7QY

• Wigton, Tuesday 25th October – 7pm to 9pm – The Market Hall, Church Street, CA7 9AA

• Kirkby Stephen, Wednesday 26th October – 1pm to 3pm – Masonic Hall, North Road, CA17 4RH

• Alston, Wednesday 26th October – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – Samuel Kings School, Church Road, CA9 3QU

• Workington, Monday 7th November – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – Carnegie Theatre, Finkle Street, CA14 2BD

• Whitehaven, Tuesday 8th November – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – United Reform Church, James Street, CA28 7HZ

• Cockermouth, Wednesday 9th November – 6.30pm to 8.30pm – Eco Centre, Cockermouth School, Castlegate Drive, CA13 9HF

More meetings are due to be arranged in Brampton, Keswick, Carlisle and Egremont, from mid-November onwards.  These new dates will be announced here.

"Success Regime proposals for healthcare in Cumbria

I cannot yet find the consultation document on the Success Regime website, but according to the News and Star they are proposing options as follows:

The preferred option would see A&E retained in Carlisle and Whitehaven, but the West Cumberland's intensive care unit would be smaller, with more patients transferred to the city's Cumberland Infirmary.

Another option is to completely remove A&E from the West Cumberland.

The plans will also see stroke patients from west Cumbria being taken by ambulance to a new specialist unit in Carlisle.

The Success Regime unveiled its detailed proposals at a launch event in Carlisle this morning, kick-starting a 12-week formal consultation which will run until just before Christmas.

Plans will then be finalised, with an announcement expected early in the new year.

The 56-page public consultation document includes at least two options for each service it wants to overhaul - maternity (including special care baby units), children's services, community hospitals, emergency care and stroke services. The Success Regime then states which option it recommends.

In summary, the options are:


MATERNITY
1. Retaining consultant-led units in both Carlisle and Whitehaven, alongside midwife-led units. Special care baby unit would remain on both sites but some higher risk births would still go to Carlisle due to reduced paediatric expertise in west (as a result of proposed changes to children's services in Whitehaven)
2. Midwife-led unit only in the west with consultants on site 8am to 8pm. However these consultants would only provide antenatal and postnatal care, not help women actually in labour. All higher risk births would therefore have to take place in Carlisle. There is also a possibility of planned, lower risk caesareans taking place in the west in future. Plan also includes dedicated maternity ambulance
3. No births at all at West Cumberland Hospital, just antenatal and postnatal care. All women would have to travel to Carlisle to give birth.

PREFERRED: OPTION 2

Penrith birthing unit not affected by any of the options

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CHILDREN'S SERVICES
1. Short stay paediatric ward at West Cumberland Hospital with some overnight stays for monitoring. All other children would go to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle
2. Short stay paediatric ward at West Cumberland Hospital but with no overnight beds. Dedicated in-patient unit created in Carlisle to serve whole of north and west Cumbria
3. Outpatient services only in west. No beds

PREFERRED: OPTION 1

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COMMUNITY HOSPITALS

(No option to retain all beds at all hospitals. All options are for 104 beds, which is less than now, and all propose closing beds at Alston, Wigton and Maryport, plus some others. Penrith would lose 4 beds in all scenarios)
1. Beds in Alston, Wigton, Maryport would close, with 104 beds consolidated across the remaining sites
2. Beds at Alston, Wigton, Maryport and Workington would close, with 104 beds consolidated across the remaining sites
3. Beds at Alston, Wigton, Maryport and Cockermouth would close, with 104 beds consolidated across the remaining sites
4. All community hospital beds would close, except in Penrith and Whitehaven's Copeland Unit (part of West Cumberland Hospital). Instead a new community hospital unit would be built in Carlisle. This would mean Brampton and Keswick also losing beds

PREFERRED: OPTION 1
In all scenarios, beds in Penrith would drop from 28 to 24. In options 1,2 and 3, Keswick and Penrith would gain extra beds

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EMERGENCY CARE
1. 24/7 A&E would be retained in both Carlisle and Whitehaven but West Cumberland Hospital's intensive care unit would be smaller, with more patients transferred to Carlisle
2. Daytime only A&E service at West Cumberland Hospital, supported by a 24/7 urgent care centre. More transfers to Carlisle and no overnight care for seriously ill
3. No A&E unit at the West Cumberland Hostpital, just urgent care services. Major increase in transfers to Carlisle

PREFERRED: OPTION 1

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STROKE
1. Existing service would be largely retained, with stroke patients taken to West Cumberland Hospital or Cumberland Infirmary
2. All stroke cases would be dealt with at a new specialist hyper-acute stroke unit in Carlisle. Only rehabilitation would be provided in the west

PREFERRED: OPTION 2

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TRAUMA AND ORTHOPAEDICS
The majority of trauma cases are already dealt with at Cumberland Infirmary after being moved from West Cumberland Hospital without public consultation on safety grounds. Bosses now want to make this arrangement permanent, with some more minor procedures returning to Whitehaven.

Cumbria Health consultation starts today!

A twelve week consultation period starts today on healthcare in Cumbria, beginning with a launch event in Carlisle this morning and publication of a consultation document expected at 12 noon today.

This will affect both District General Hospitals and community hospitals and is likely to include significant changes to maternity care which will be of great interest and concern to many residents of the county.

Key stakeholders, such as local MPs, councils, community groups and health trust governors, will also be briefed just before the plans go public.

The proposals are likely to include more than one option within each proposal, with the "Success Regime" making clear which it sees as the preferred scenario. This will form the basis for the consultation, which will include more public meetings in communities across the area.

It is a year since the Success Regime moved in to set out its intentions - to tackle deep-rooted problems in the local NHS, including huge debts and recruitment problems.

It came after North Cumbria was deemed one of three areas of England with the most challenged health economies by the Government.

Developments as they unfold today will be reported at www.news-and-star.co.uk

Consultation details will also appear on the website of the NHS "Success Regime" in Cumbria, which will be an essential destination for those who want to keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland hospital, and can be found at

http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/

The feedback page on the site is already open and people who have concerns they want to share with the Success regime can do so at

 http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/have-your-say

CONSULTATION STARTS TODAY

ONE DAY TO GO

The Success Regime consultation on Healthcare in Cumbria starts today, Monday 26th Sept 2016

The next and critically important consultation on healthcare in Cumbria begins today.

This will affect both District General Hospitals and community hospitals and is likely to include significant changes to maternity care which will be of great interest and concern to many residents of the county.

The details will appear on the website of the NHS "Success Regime" in Cumbria, which will be an essential destination for those who want to keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland hospital, and can be found at

http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/

The consultation document is expected to appear on that website on Monday.

The feedback page on the site is already open and people who have concerns they want to share with the Success regime can do so at

 http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/have-your-say

Sunday music spot: Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, 2nd movement (Andante)

I have known and loved Mozart's 2nd Piano Concerto for many years. I have never seen the film "Elvira Madigan" which came out when I was a small boy. But because it used the second movement of this beautiful Mozart piece as it's theme, the name of Elvira Madigan has somehow become associated, apparently indelibly, with Mozart's music.

It's a funny old world. But a lovely piece of music.



P.S. I wondered what had happened to this - if you are wondering what a music post is doing on a hospital campaign site, I had intended it for my general blog but the interface between YouTube and Blogger sent it here instead without me noticing!

ONE DAY TO GO - Health consultation starts tomorrow

Remember, consultation on Healthcare in Cumbria starts on Monday

The next and critically important consultation on healthcare in Cumbria begins tomorrow, on Monday 26th September.

This will affect both District General Hospitals and community hospitals and is likely to include significant changes to maternity care which will be of great interest and concern to many residents of the county.

The details will appear on the website of the NHS "Success Regime" in Cumbria, which will be an essential destination for those who want to keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland hospital, and can be found at

http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/

The consultation document is expected to appear on that website on Monday.

The feedback page on the site is already open and people who have concerns they want to share with the Success regime can do so at

 http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/have-your-say

 

How to have your say in the forthcoming "success regime" consultation

The website for the NHS "Success Regime" in Cumbria, which will be an important part of the communications for the consultation which starts on Monday and hence an essential destination for those who want to keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland hospital, can be found at

http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/

The consultation document is expected to appear on that website on Monday (26th September)

This will not just be important for maternity but for a number of other services, as there will be proposals on such matters as the number of beds at community hospitals. There will be some proposals people may want to support (more beds and activity at Cockermouth hospital for instance) as well as those which cause concerns.

The feedback page on the site is already open and people who have concerns they want to share with the Success regime can do so at

 http://www.successregimecumbria.nhs.uk/have-your-say

Plans for the future of Maternity and other health servicesw in Cumbria to be released on Monday

DON'T MISS MONDAY'S ANNOUNCMENT of the start of the latest round of consultations on the maternity services in Cumbria.

The Success Regime will be releasing a formal consultation document into local healthcare next week.

Chairman Sir Neil McKay told a public meeting at Cockermouth Community Hospital last Tuesday:

“The future of maternity services at the West Cumberland Hospital has been discussed endlessly. We have real concerns about whether it's possible to maintain a consultant-led maternity service there.

“If our concerns are correct then we have to come up with other options. I would fail if I offered a service that was not sustainable.

“This is a complex set of issues, our thoughts are in the consultation document. The present position is a real worry and I understand how passionate people feel.”

He is right that this is a complex issue and about the need to safe and sustainable options but I am seriously alarmed by the signals being sent.

Don't forget that when independent national assessors visited Cumbria recently to look at the options for maternity care, they made a particular point of saying in their report that they had expected to recommend a centralised maternity unit for the county but when they saw what the position was really like in the county - little matters like how long it takes to drive between places like Whitehaven and Carlisle or from Gosforth to Barrow - they changed their minds and recommended as Option One that consultant-led maternity care should be retained at all our major hospitals including WCH and FGH.

 It sounds like we are about to have to fight, fight and fight again, yet again, for our hospitals.

As usual, NHS leaders are insisting that no decisions have yet been made while campaigners are claiming that they have.

"The public will have three months to comment, no decisions have been made or will be made until the end of that time," said Sir Neil.

I'm not going to take sides on that point beyond pointing out the obvious:

If we don't like aspects of what is proposed and make a huge fuss about it there is a chance that the "success regime" and local NHS leaders will listen, but if we don't make a fuss you can be certain that they can't listen to what has not even been said.

Details of the proposals will be available on the success regime's website and in surgeries.

The proposals will also include plans for "Integrated Care Teams" and for increases and decreases in the number of beds at community hospitals with more beds at Cockermouth but fewer at Maryport, Wigton and Alston.

"Integrated care teams are the bedrock of our proposals for the future. These teams will find ways of preventing people being referred to hospital unless they need to go. They will also ensure people go home as soon as possible, too often people stay longer than they need to," said Sir Neil.

"If these teams work as we hope there will not be the need for so many beds."

More information on the News and Star website at
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/latest/Plans-for-future-of-Cumbrias-hospitals-to-be-released-on-Monday-3b719c8b-5c5a-41c7-b22f-76f5486e25d2-ds