Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust
Posted by Chris Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, at 21:27, Mon 27 March 2006:
There has been a major and very unwelcome development over the past few days, which will require very urgent action from us locally if we are to have any chance of stopping this.
Over the past couple of months, the Epsom and St Helier Trust has been going through yet another review of its services. Ostensibly the reason for this is to ensure patient safety - but it seems to me that the only issues of patient safety relate to the number of staff available to work in each part of the hospital. My own view is that all of this is being driven by the financial crisis within the NHS.
The Trust brought in two expert groups to advise them on services, and essentially they have advised the Trust to transfer elective services to Epsom and emergency services to St Helier. The Epsom Accident and Emergency Department would remain open for medical patients - for example those with heart problems and breathing difficulties - but not for those requiring surgery after, for example, a car crash.
There are split opinions over this change. Some of the doctors say it will be very difficult to retain staff in the A&E Department if it does less - others say that the numbers of patients involved are only two or three a day, who would now be treated at St Helier. Whichever way you look at it, it is not a welcome change.
However to me the biggest issue is over the future of the maternity unit and childrens' services. In future, all inpatient services for children would move to St Helier as would all the doctor-led maternity services. All that would remain at Epsom would be a small midwife-led unit handling a fraction of the number of births at Epsom each year, plus outpatient services. Mothers with potentially complicated births would go to St Helier.
My view is that this is utterly unacceptable. I have never heard from anyone a whisper of doubt about the service provided in the Epsom maternity department. All of this is happening because of the NHS's determination to save money and to set very high standards for training. I have no complaint about either goal, but there has to be a balance between them and the need to provide local services.
I have a particular anxiety about the creation of a birthing unit. I think there is a real doubt that enough mothers locally will want to use the unit to keep it going for any length of time, and I think it is possible that it may only last a short time before being closed. Most midwife led units are close to or in major hospitals. In cases where they are not, there have been issues about their viability in other parts of the country.
Coming on top of the Government's intervention to insist that the new hospital is built at St Helier, this is a further kick in the teeth for people in our area - particularly with rumours around that some services may be transferred away from Guildford Hospital as well. The St Helier decision is being challenged in the Courts by my colleagues on Surrey County Council and Reigate and Banstead and Mole Valley Councils, and I suspect will be reversed. I obtained a confidential report under the Freedom of Information Act which demonstrated that the grounds used by the Government for the change - that there were greater health inequalities near St Helier, were actually untrue.
My fear is that these decisions are really being taken for financial and political reasons. I think that many of the other arguments are completely spurious. The NHS is saying that it wants fewer major acute centres and more work done in local community hospitals. Yet the Epsom and St Helier Trust is trying to centre its own acute services at St Helier, even though there are three other major hospitals within a very short distance, and though it can actually be seen from windows in our biggest hospital in this area - St George's in Tooting.
The decision has not finally been ratified by the local Trust board. We have a few days to try to make them change their mind.
As far as I can see, the only real weapon we have is that we can all vote with our feet and choose other hospitals apart from St Helier in future. It's obviously important that no one does anything which endangers their own health, but I don't think the NHS has appreciated that people at the Surrey end of the Trust area will not simply transfer to St Helier.
Can I urge you to bombard the Trust with letters and emails of protest over the next few days, and let them know what you think about any idea of downgrading the maternity unit at Epsom. Its email address is:
enquiries@epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk
The postal address is:
Lorraine Clifton, Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, Wrythe Lane, Carshalton, SM5 1AA
Please also forward this email to anyone else you know in the area so that they can do the same.
The board meets this time next week, so we have to move quickly.
Many thanks for your help.
Best wishes
Chris Grayling
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