Cuts coming to Amersham Hospital (From This Is Local London)

Cuts coming to Amersham Hospital

9:38am Thursday 5th November 2009 in News By Andy Carswell

Amersham Hospital

SERVICES are facing the axe at Amersham Hospital – raising the prospect of even more patients going to Aylesbury.

Health bosses say cuts are needed because fewer patients are being sent to hospital.

They did not name affected departments when asked by The Bucks Free Press and said outpatient clinics and hospital beds were an example of threatened services.

The hospital has three wards for OAPs, brain injury patients and skin patients. Clinics are held for eyes, skin and hearing patients.

Staff would be re-deployed bosses said – but redundancy fears are running high.

Unison boss Steve Bell said: “They are destroying local services.

“This will have an affect on our most vulnerable people. They don’t take into consideration the travelling involved.”

The Bucks Free Press has been told the reception and records department at Amersham Hospital will close.

Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust refused to confirm this when asked but has said before that the records move is “likely”.

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It is the latest change to NHS services in Bucks. Wycombe Hospital has already lost serious trauma A&E cases and doctor-led births and overnight children’s care.

They are often re-directed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, also run by the trust.

Cabinet members at Chiltern District Council’s this week said they had heard that up to 80 per cent of services could be axed at Amersham from December 31.

Cllr Noel Brown, cabinet member for health, said changes were “without any notice” which was “frightening”.

He said: “This is a cost-saving exercise, not one on how to look after our local people better.”

In a statement, trust spokesman Lee Jones said plans could combine some clinics “to ensure we are at full capacity”. She refused to name departments.

She said: “We have a statutory duty to break-even and we take our responsibility for providing quality services that offer value for money to the taxpayer very seriously. Our commitment to putting the needs of the patient first remains.”

Care had be provided more in the community with hospitals “more specialised” and taking fewer patients, she said.

She said: “We will need to take action to match our capacity to the demand on our services – and going forward we will not need as many outpatient clinics and hospital beds, for example.”

Staff had been consulted and changes “may mean a change of work base for a very small number and we will do all that is possible to redeploy into vacancies in the hospital”.

Hospital closures were not an option, she said, and the outpatients department would stay at Amersham.

The trust is having its finances hit by NHS Buckinghamshire, formerly Buckinghamshire NHS Primary Care Trust, where decides how much cash it gets.

The NHSB has been in debt since it was formed in 2006 and was the only such authority in the red in England last year.

Last month it was named the worst managed in England by Government auditors. Bosses say they do not get enough cash from Government as Bucks is seen as “healthy”.

This means it cannot to afford to pay for hospital care, which is far more expensive than community-based care, hitting the hospital trust’s finances and putting it in the red after years in the clear.

A controversial building programme at Wycombe and Amersham has also hit its finances.

Under the scheme, private firms pay for buildings and “mortgage” it back to the trust plus interest.

This has hit the trust so much that it considered trying to get out of the deal, which means the cost of Amersham spiralled to £10.5m a year against an income of only £6.4m.