A LACK of consultation about proposals to change the way Vale hospitals are run has been described as “disgusting”.
Frances Smith, chairman of the Friends of Evesham hospital, spoke out after a new organisation to take over the running of community hospitals, including Evesham and Pershore, was approved by healthcare bosses.
The plan, put forward by NHS Worcestershire after the Government ordered a review of healthcare, will see the dissolution of the Mental Health Partnership Trust and the creation of a new Community & Mental Health NHS Trust, twice its size, to run services instead of the Primary Care Trust (PCT). The PCT will switch from directly providing the services to buying, commissioning and arranging them.
As part of the change, the responsibility for some specialist nursing services, including breast screening, diabetic nursing and heart failure, will be transferred to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) – the body which runs hospitals including Worcestershire Royal – and any remaining community services, such as district nursing and therapies, to GPs.
Frances Smith, chairman of the Friends of Evesham Community Hospital, said she was happy to go along with the proposals but added the public had been “short-changed” because no consultation would be held until after the general election.
“Most of us would like to stay status quo but that’s not an option from the Department of Health,” she said. “I’m concerned that the PCT has been forced to make the proposals in such a short space of time.
“There’s no consultation with the stake holders or the public until after the general election and I think this is pretty disgusting.
“I can’t see why the Department of Health have just suddenly decided to push all the PCTs into doing these proposals.”
