“NHS England has proposed transferring responsibility for the provision of kidney dialysis services to CCGs by April Fools’ Day, 2015 - this means that instead of NHS England being responsible for dialysis services, CCGs will be in charge of these vital services and could choose to farm them out to private providers,” says Mr Ash.
“To add insult to injury, NHS England has launched an outrageously short public consultation period - it was launched on November 27 and ends on January 9 with next to no publicity and over the busy Christmas period.”
“I want NHS England to extend the consultation period and I urge the local CCGs to join me in this call especially as the changes would directly impact on St Helier Hospital.”
“Many people have only become aware of the consultation because of a column Lauren Laverne wrote for the Observer newspaper.”
“To run a six-week consultation over a very busy period of the year for changes to essential renal dialysis services that could come into effect from April 1 is scandalous,” says Mr Ash. “I call on all CCGs that make up South West London Collaborative Commissioning to join me in demanding NHS England extend the consultation period and do a better job of promoting the consultation.”
“Given that St Helier Hospital’s excellent renal unit is already under threat, it is imperative that our local CCGs join me in standing up to NHS England and demand a much longer consultation period for changes that could fragment and further privatise kidney services.”
“I back the British Kidney Patient Association’s call to delay any changes until 2016 so that a proper consultation process can take place.”