By Gillian Ellison

Last updated at 12:25, Thursday, 19 November 2009

HOSPITAL bosses are being urged to ensure that patients in West Cumbria have a fair access to health services.

The Rector of Whitehaven, the Rev John Bannister, is calling on health chiefs to look at centralising some services in Whitehaven instead of Carlisle.

Representing the Save Our Services group, he told The Whitehaven News that he still has concerns – in particular about the retention of services at the hospital.

As a member of both the new hospital project team and stakeholders group, Mr Bannister said there was much to commend about the hospital redevelopment.

“The realisation of this new hospital is some of the best news that has happened in this community,” he said. “For a long time this uncertainty has hung over it and at last we have got assurances that we will see investment in acute services.”

And he believes, under the current management of North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust, that communication is more open and that there is more desire for the Trust to involve the community.

But, he said, his main area of concern is still to do with the retention and security of patient services at the hospital. “My first concern is that we do not see any movement of services away from West Cumberland Hospital during the construction phase unless it is absolutely necessary from a clinical point of view – and, if it does have to, only on the understanding that it returns.”

The Trust has previously given an assurance that no services will have to move during construction.

“And I think we are some way from feeling totally confident about securing clinical services that are currently provided at the hospital on a longer term basis,” said Mr Bannister. “Ophthalmology (eye services) is a real example of that concern. This is a service that represents 10 per cent of patient activity in the hospital so it is very much a critical part of sustainability of the hospital.

“Yet the Trust is reviewing that, with one option of possibly moving that service from the hospital.

“The SOS campaign wants to draw a line in the sand there and say this is not something that we can support and raise our objection to that in the strongest terms,” he said.

The Trust is looking at a range of options for eye services which include basing them all at Carlisle, all at Whitehaven or a ‘hub-and-spoke’ plan which could see day case eye surgery (such as cataracts) being carried out at West Cumberland Hospital with the rest undertaken at Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle. The aim, they say, is to make procedures such as cataracts as efficient as possible and then that will allow treatment for an eye condition called Age Related Macular Degeneration – the commonest cause of blindness in the UK – to be brought back into the county. Currently people have to travel to Newcastle for that.

Health bosses want to bring those services back to Carlisle so that patients – including those from West Cumbria – will no longer have to travel to the north east for such treatment.

Mr Bannister says there should be a reasonably equitable sharing of access to services across both hospital sites (West Cumberland and Cumberland Infirmary) following the formation of one hospital trust a number of years ago.

“Up to date, we haven’t seen that,” he said. “There seems to be a fairly high level of people having to travel to Carlisle for hospital services. We are still waiting for the Trust to show its commitment to centralising some services in West Cumberland Hospital. I would suggest that ophthalmology could be one of those services to centralise here. The Trust has got to show a willingness to address the inequality of access to services in West Cumbria.”

He said the Cumberland Infirmary, built under Private Finance Initiative, had turned out to be “a millstone around the neck of the Trust”.

“We are always going to be paying for that but I would urge the Trust to move forward in demonstrating their commitment to equitable access to services in West Cumbria by centralising some specialities at West Cumberland Hospital.”

Mr Bannister also urged the community to exercise their right to have their treatment at West Cumberland Hospital. He said he had heard from some people that they were being directed to the Cumberland Infirmary for treatment.

“I am concerned that people have been directed to the Cumberland Infirmary by GPs when the same service is available at West Cumberland Hospital,” he added.

Carole Heatly, chief executive of the Trust, said: “Our Trust’s priority is always to ensure that we deliver safe, high quality and efficient services from both hospitals. Services will be placed where they best serve the needs of our patients. The £100m redevelopment of West Cumberland Hospital gives us a great opportunity for our community in West Cumbria. We will be looking to take every advantage of this significant development. Medical physics is one area where we could maximise this opportunity for West Cumberland Hospital.”

First published at 15:55, Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk