MP tells hospital chiefs: 'Give assurances or go!'

Jamie Reed insists bosses “abandon” any plans to strip services from Whitehaven.

And he says the North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust must commit to a plan to retain sustainable services as part of the ‘success regime’.

If they don’t – “I will be left with no other choice but to regrettably request the resignation of the Trust board,” he told The Whitehaven News yesterday.

Mr Reed says the Trust “is determined to ignore” independent recommendations made to it which relate to the retention of key services at the West Cumberland Hospital.

And he accuses bosses of “deliberately undermining” staff and the A&E service in Whitehaven following last week’s shock announcement that it could close next year if medics are not recruited.

But health chief Ann Farrer said this week “There are no preconceived plans to reduce services”.

The A&E department was told it could be downgraded to a minor injuries unit only (a so-called ‘Plan B’), with ambulances bypassing Whitehaven for Carlisle. And it is unclear what would happen to other services such as maternity if that did happen.

Mr Reed fired off his concerns in a letter sent to the Trust yesterday, copied in to NHS chief executive Simon Stevens; success regime chief Sir Neil Mackay and the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt.

The MP said Mr Stevens, and the high-powered health team which recently toured the hospital new-build, told local bosses and consultants chosen to attend a meeting that such a move was “unacceptable”. And that Mr Stevens said the Whitehaven hospital should not be “asset stripped any further”.

Mr Reed added: “At no point did anyone from North Cumbria or Northumbria Trust challenge this statement.” He said: “I was amazed to learn of reports which stated that A&E staff had been summoned to an ‘emergency briefing’ whereby they were told of the development of ‘Plan B’ by the Trust, but not that it had been dismissed as unacceptable, nor that the Trust had been told to go away and develop a service model that didn’t feature anything like ‘Plan B’.”

Earlier this year three of West Cumberland Hospital’s A&E consultants said they would walk out collectively in August next year unless their concerns regarding safety are addressed. Their key worry is that there is insufficient specialist out-of-hours back up for patients in the medical and surgical departments to provide a safe and sustainable acute service.

The Success Regime is a partnership of all health organisations set up to tackle problems across the NHS in North Cumbria.

The Trust’s latest inspection report from the Care Quality Commission rated it as ‘requires improvement’ and it remains in special measures. Inspectors highlighted chronic staff shortages, leading to medical care at the West Cumberland Hospital being rated as inadequate.

Trust chief executive, Ann Farrar, said: “No one should be in any doubt that the Trust Board is absolutely committed to a successful, vibrant West Cumberland Hospital and we have already invested heavily in the hospital and brought about substantial quality improvements, not least of these being a £90 million new hospital and a strengthened nurse practitioner team.

“We are committed to working with the Success Regime towards a very clear common goal which is to secure safe and sustainable services for the long-term future at West Cumberland Hospital.

“There are no preconceived plans to reduce services, on the contrary, we are doing all we can to recruit to key medical vacancies including our innovative partnership with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) which will allow to establish a medical school in West Cumbria and grow our own doctors in the future.

“We share the concerns of our A&E consultants and are actively working to address the challenges we face in relation to acute medicine at West Cumberland Hospital, however, it is our duty to plan for all eventualities and all possible worst case scenarios.

“To do this, we must be able to have open and transparent discussions with our clinical teams about the challenges we face, such as the recent discussion our A&E team has had as part of their routine business.

“We remain absolutely committed to working closely with all health partners as part of the Success Regime and look forward to developing a long-term clinical strategy within the next six months.”