Conservative statements on hospital (From This Is Local London)

Conservative statements on hospital

11:31am Thursday 12th November 2009 in

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Andrew Lansley MP:

"I am very pleased to meet Paul Goodman, Steve Baker and Darren Hayday to discuss the future of hospital services in High Wycombe and district; and to hear about the views of local people in support of their hospital.

"As we discussed, I want the people of High Wycombe to have more control over the services provided to them. We will encourage the Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust to achieve Foundation Trust status, so it has greater autonomy and local people as members.

"A future Conservative Government would also give patients greater choice and local GPs the ability to control patients' budgets, so that the services provided at Wycombe Hospital can be those sought by local GPs and public.

"And a future conservative Government would ensure a fair NHS funding formula, so that resources are matched to need and access to healthcare for those who are ill is not disadvantaged relative to other parts of the country."

Paul Goodman MP:

"I've repeatedly said that the key to returning services to Wycombe is for Bucks Hospitals NHS Trust to gain foundation status - which would give local people a majority say on the board that controls Wycombe and Stoke.

"The main obstacle to foundation status is of course the local NHS deficit. It's an albatross around the neck of the hospital trust, and little progress will be made until it's removed. "And an important means of getting rid of it, of course, is a fairer financial NHS settlement for Bucks.

"We had a about half an hour with Andrew, and I thought that what he had to tell us on the funding front was basically good news. "Obviously, he emphasised that NHS budgets generally are going to be extremely tight during the next few years. And in the short term, there are huge constraints in Bucks - since we're one of the few areas in the south-east to have a structural PCT deficit.

"But on the crucial question of how money is distributed between in each local area - once the overall NHS budget's been settled - he emphasised that under a Conservative Government resources would once again be allocated on the basis of need.

"This is essentially how they were allocated until about 2004, when Labour changed the national NHS funding formula. "The result, as we know, has been cuts and closures at Wycombe Hospital - forced through over the head of local opinion by managers brought in from outside. "Andrew made the point that need is closely related to the number of older people, which is obviously higher in Bucks than in some other area. "He specifically said that older people shouldn't in effect be punished by the NHS financial settlement just because they live in a county that's better-off than some other areas.

"He also observed that there's no intrinsic reason why Wycombe's present emergency medical centre shouldn't be re-badged as an A & E department - since, after all, there's no legal definition of an accident and emergency department, and emergency care is indeed provided at Wycombe.

"In general terms, he wants to see more hospitals with foundation status, working to plan their services in partnership with GPs and local authorities. "Local GPs would therefore play a larger role in deciding what services Wycombe and Stoke would provide. "The question is whether they, the local authority and the management of a foundation trust would conclude that there were enough local births to justify a full children's and maternity service at Wycombe - as there was until this year.

"As I've also said that in the longer-term I'd like to see the Trust broken up, and Wycombe become an independent hospital again. Andrew gave no indication that this was at all likely under present NHS assumptions. "Essentially, current NHS thinking is that a general hospital has to service roughly 450,000 people. The WDC area contains about 162,000 people. "I'm aware of one study which suggests that Wycombe has enough beds to support an independent hospital, but until or unless the NHS planners change their view I suspect that Wycombe will stay coupled with Stoke for the forseeable future."