HEALTHCARE FOR THE FUTURE DECISIONS

CCG Decision about West Cumbria's Hospitals

This is what the "Success Regime" posted on their website here  on Wednesday 8th March 2017  following the CCG decision.

  

NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) Governing Body met today to discuss and make decisions about the future of healthcare in west, north and east Cumbria.
    
The options were the subject of a public consultation between September 26 and December 19 2016.
The meeting considered recommendations developed from the options consulted upon, in light of the public feedback, and following subsequent clinical workshops.

The Governing Body decided:

Maternity

To implement and test the viability of Option 1. To maintain consultant-led care at the West Cumberland Hospital, with some high risk women giving birth in Carlisle. During a 12 month period there will be an Independent Steering Group established to involve the community working in partnership with health professionals (co-production) to enable the very best efforts to be made to tackle the challenges the service faces, particularly around recruitment and retention of key staff, especially in paediatrics and anaesthetics. An important element of this co-production work will be an independent review of anaesthetist recruitment in relation to maternity services undertaken by the Royal College of Anaesthetists as soon as is practically possible.

At the same time there will be the development of an alongside midwife-led unit at the West Cumberland Hospital. The unit will be assessed as though it were ‘free-standing’ to better understand the level of risk to expectant mothers and babies.

If Option 1 is not proven to be deliverable or sustainable then Option 2 should be implemented at the end of the 12 month period (Consultant Led Unit and alongside Midwifery Led Unit at Cumberland Infirmary Carlisle and a standalone Midwifery Led Unit at West Cumberland Hospital).

If following the audit of the midwife led unit, Option 2 is not deemed to be safe, then Option 3 should be implemented. (Option 3 is a Consultant Led Unit and alongside Midwifery Led Unit at  Cumberland Infirmary Carlisle and no births at West Cumberland Hospital).

Paediatrics

To implement Option 1. This option involves the development of an inpatient paediatric unit serving West, North and East Cumbria based at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle along with a Short Stay Paediatric Assessment Unit. At the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven there would be a Short Stay Paediatric Assessment Unit for children requiring short term observation and treatment. There would be some overnight beds at Whitehaven for children with less acute, low risk illnesses but children who needed more acute inpatient admission would be transferred to Carlisle.
The Governing Body agreed that if Option 1 ultimately proves to be unsustainable, then Option 2 for Children’s Services may need to be implemented. This would mean no paediatric overnight beds in Whitehaven.
    
Community Hospitals

To implement Option 1 which will see the consolidation of inpatient Community Hospital beds into six sites. In total there would be 104 inpatient beds at Whitehaven (Copeland Unit), Cockermouth, Workington, Penrith, Brampton and Keswick. However the Governing Body support this being implemented in a phased way through the proposals developed by the communities, in Alston, Maryport and Wigton, over the next few years.
     
Emergency and Acute care
To implement Option 1. This will see 24/7 A+E services maintained at both the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. An intensive care unit will be retained at Whitehaven, with the most seriously ill patients transferred to Carlisle. This option will also see the development of an innovative, ‘composite’ workforce model developing staff to cover a wider range of roles.
    
Hyper acute stroke services
To implement Option 2. This will see a hyper acute stroke unit (HASU) developed at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, with all possible stroke patients taken directly to the unit, and any arriving at Whitehaven transferred to Carlisle for assessment and treatment by a specialist multi-disciplinary team. Rehabilitation services will be maintained at the West Cumberland Hospital.
    
Emergency surgery, trauma and orthopaedic services
The Governing Body agreed to make permanent the earlier interim changes which saw the centralisation of emergency complex trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the Cumberland Infirmary.
This will also see more minor trauma surgery carried out at the West Cumberland Hospital along with some non-complex day case surgery. There will also be additional outpatients fracture clinics introduced at the West Cumberland Hospital.

NHS Cumbria CCG’s chief executive Stephen Childs said:

“We have listened to the feedback we received during the public consultation. We have been very clear about the challenges we face and members of the public have shared their concerns about the risks. We hope we have found a way forward, but we will need the support of everyone – NHS staff, the community, the groups we have been engaging with throughout the process as well as other health professionals, to try to ensure safe and sustainable services into the future. The output of the independent review of anaesthetist recruitment to be carried out by the Royal College of Anaesthetists will provide further valuable insight.
    
“We know it won’t be easy, but we also know there is a great energy and passion for the NHS and we want to harness every opportunity to create the best outcomes for Cumbria.”
    
The Governing Body also found that the public consultation had been carried out to a highly satisfactory standard, meeting the independent Consultation Institute standards to be rated ‘best practice’.

It also outlined a process for ensuring that implementation plans are drawn up with appropriate staff, clinical and community engagement, and to ensure the new services are introduced safely.

The meeting was held at the Oval Centre in Workington and observed by members of the public, including health and local authority partners, and representatives of community and campaign groups who have been involved over recent months.

The decisions will be considered by Cumbria County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee later this month.

Dr David Rogers, Medical Director of NHS Cumbria CCG, said:

“Firstly we would like to reassure our community, patients and staff that no services will change overnight. Robust plans will need to be in place before any changes occur. We will need the community’s support to enable us to ensure the transition of these services safely over time. We have listened to both the public and the experts and do believe that a genuine coproduction is the best way forward  to ensure the best possible services for our patients and public’’.

“This process has been about ensuring safe and sustainable services for our community, and that continues to be our priority in the coming weeks and months.”

A spokesperson for NHS England and NHS Improvement Cumbria and the North East, said:

“The West, North and East Cumbria Success Regime, which was established in autumn 2015, had the very important and difficult task of looking at how to tackle long-standing problems within the health system in the area, with a focus on recruitment, finance and quality of care.

“We appreciate that changing the way people access health care may cause concern. Views from a vast number and range of organisations and individuals have been taken into account as part of the consultation and Cumbria CCG’s decision making process. With regard to maternity services, additional information from an independent review by the Royal College of Anaesthetists, due to take place during April and May this year, will provide further important detail to assist with the implementation of proposals. 

“The priority has to be to secure the future of health care in Cumbria, and to ensure patients receive the best possible care, which is sustainable, safe and affordable.”

Maternity at WCH gets a stay of execution

After thousands of people took part in the consultation on the "success regime" proposals for hospital services in West, North and East Cumbria, and 91% of them wanted to keep consultant-led maternity at West Cumberland Hospital, the Clinical Commissioning Group meeting today granted a 12-moth stay of execution.

The decision could certainly have been worse - they could have gone ahead with the "Preferred option" - but I am not going to be popping the champagne corks about this.

Welcome though it is that the leadership of the NHS in Cumbria say they are going to look at recruitment and retention, it is not going to be as easy to persuade doctors, nurses and other key professionals to come and work for the NHS in Cumbria if the impression is created that the service could be downgraded in 12 months time.

I agree with Copeland Mayor Mike Starkie in a piece he has written for the Whitehaven News tomorrow that we need to campaign together to persuade potential recruits to the maternity and paediatric services in Cumbria that West Cumbria is a fantastic place to live, work and build a career.

It is also absolutely essential that the Trust give appropriate guarantees to potential recruits about their job security.

The campaign to protect services at West Cumbria's hospitals is far from over: it needs to enter a new phase. One which is positive but determined: we are going to make sure we keep our hospital services.

Succcess Regime decision day tomorrow

The NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group board will be meeting at the Workington Oval tomorrow (10am on Wednesday 8th March) to decide what changes to Cumbria's NHS they should proceed  with following the consultation.

Any material change in circumstances will require Department of Health approval.

I hope that the CCG will listen to the public and drop the idea of removing consultant-led maternity from WCH as 91% of those who responded to the consultation wanted. If they don't the community must come together and lobby government ministers to reject the proposal.

Success Regime proposals - Consultation report published

The independent report which summarises the results of the public consultation held late last year into the future of West Cumbria's Hospitals has now been published.

The success regime will review the results and decide what they will now propose to do at a meeting to be held in public on Wednesday 8th March.

You can read the executive summary of the consultation report at

http://www.cumbriaccg.nhs.uk/news/Consultation-documents/executive-summary.pdf

The full report is available at

http://www.wnecumbria.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Healthcare-for-the-Future-consultation-Full-Report.pdf

The independent report descrines the success regime proposals as having "mixed support" which is a polite way of saying that thousands of respondents are vehemently opposed to several of the proposals.

There were over five thousand responses of various types.

The most controversial single issue is of course maternity services.

Of those who responded to the consultation questionnaire, 57% (2,097 people) ranked the maternity options and of these 85% regarded maternity option one as the best (or least worst) maternity proposal.

A further 37% of total respondents (1,366 people) refused to rank the maternity options because the objected to all of them. there were also 234 people (6% of those who answered the questionnaire) who did not respond on maternity.

Put these numbers together and 3,148 people were opposed to the removal of consultant-led maternity from WCH. (That's 91% of those questionnaire respondents who expressed an opinion about maternity.)

There was even stronger objection to the idea of losing 24-hour Accident and Emergency care at West Cumberland Hospital (which the Success Resime is not proposing.)

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

The NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group board will be meeting, in public, at the Workington Oval at 10am on Wednesday 8th March to decide what changes they should proceed  with following the consultation.

The agenda for that meeting will be published three working days before.

Any material change in circumstances will require Department of Health approval.

I hope that the CCG will listen to the public and drop the idea of removing consultant-led maternity from WCH. If they don't the community needs to come together and lobby government ministers to reject the proposal.