Campaigns to stop Hospital merger

By Natasia Moore

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A campaign's being launched to try and stop services being merged across two hospitals in the North West.

Bosses at Arrowe Park on the Wirral and the Countess of Chester are looking at the possibility of collaborating on some things like vascular surgery.

Staff and unions have got together to fight the plans though..
 
The hospitals have sent a joint statement saying:

"Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust have been working together to develop collaborative working in the provision of excellent patient services and to achieve efficiencies in the delivery of shared "back office" support. So far, this has resulted in improvements in joint working across clinical teams as well as the establishment of shared services for HR services and microbiology.

"One of the major benefits to patients of this type of collaborative working is the development of centres of excellence delivering specialist services.

"With regard to Vascular services, a Primary Care Trust led Cheshire and Mersey Vascular Review was established with the aim of establishing a small number of Specialist Centres to undertake complex and emergency vascular surgery with remaining care to continue to be provided locally. The review proposed that hospitals work in partnership to deliver these services and the recommendation is that there should only be two Vascular Centres in the Cheshire and Mersey region. We have submitted a joint bid, to be a Vascular Centre serving the south of the Mersey population, based on the Countess of Chester site.

"The establishment of Vascular Centres will mean that a relatively small number of our patients who would normally receive treatment at Arrowe Park Hospital will attend a Vascular Centre for surgery. However, this Trust will continue to provide less complex vascular surgery and other vascular services at Arrowe Park Hospital, maintaining local access for the vast majority of vascular patients.

"On the issue of seriously ill patients potentially being transferred between the two hospital sites, this Trust considers the provision of high quality care to patients to be its highest priority and would never transfer patients between the two hospital sites unless they were medically fit to do so."