Keep Our St Helier Hospital (KOSHH) campaigners attended last week’s Merton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) public meeting but were disappointed with the limited opportunity to ask important questions of the board members.
Only three KOSHH members were able to attend because the meeting was held on midday during a work day. The meeting was scheduled to end at 1pm but the presentations went on until 12:55pm which did not leave much time for questions.
“The meeting was just a series of presentations on how well they have done,” said KOSHH campaigner Sandra Ash. “The general message was: You don’t ever want to go to hospital, I don’t want to go to hospital, nobody ever wants to go to hospital, even if you are so sick you might be or are dying.”
“We heard all about the health centres they are opening but they also admitted that St Georges failed to meet ambulance waiting times, but there was no mention of how this would improve if St Helier lost its A&E department.”
KOSHH campaigners are also concerned that there was no mention of the Epsom-St Helier trust being referred to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt until Mrs Ash asked about this in the very limited time available for questions.
“I asked about the trust’s referral to Hunt on the grounds of the deficit and how this meant that a Trust Special Advisor could be appointed, and the hospital closed with little notice or consultation, and I asked how St George’s would cope if St Helier lost A&E, but I did not get any satisfactory answers,” said Mrs Ash.
A spokesperson from the Trust gave the following statement:
"We would like to explain a little bit about our referral from the Audit Commission, which happened in July. The Audit Commission have a statutory responsibility to formally notify the Secretary of State regarding all NHS trusts who have posted an aggregate deficit in the last three years. As a result, our Trust – along with 18 others – went through this technical process.
"It is important to note that in referring this matter to the Secretary of State, the Audit Commission recognised that our Trust has reported a significantly improved financial position for 2013-14 in our draft accounts and have submitted a breakeven plan for the current year. In addition, our breakeven plan has been accepted by the NHS Trust Development Authority (the organisation that oversees all non-Foundation trusts).
"We have always been open and transparent about our financial challenges, and would like to assure all of our patients, visitors and staff that we do have a robust plan in place to balance the books at the end of the year and there are absolutely no plans to appoint a special administrator to the Trust. What’s important now is to focus on our patients, our positive future and improving finances.