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Give us a ‘D’ please

Jenny Kirby
7/ 6/2006

AN NHS watchdog has thrown its weight behind Option D - the only option contained in the Making It Better review which keeps women and children's services at Macclesfield Hospital.

The Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust Patient and Public Involvement Forum has made its official response public regarding the consultation and say why they have chosen this option. Their report said: "Macclesfield Hospital is not only the choice for mothers and their children in Eastern Cheshire, it is the only viable option to meet the criteria of near to home provision and choice" for a large population.

The PPI Forum also said they had major concerns regarding accessibility, lack of public transport, difficult and extensive travelling problems and ambulance provision, if Option D was not chosen.

The forum hoped that the volume of responses from this area reflected passionate concern, and however modest in detail, would be acknowledged in the analysis.

Independent company Tribal have been asked to examine each and every response and an outcome is expected in September at the earliest.

The forum also said they would vote for Option One contained within the Future Healthcare Project - the preferred option - but expressed some reservations.

These included that "deflection of funding resources from the hospital environment would not compromise the ability of the hospital to provide essential, more specialised services, near to the community".

And that in view of recent staff cuts across the NHS as a whole, "funding is not consumed in unnecessarily expensive developments at the expense of a loss of frontline capacity".

The conclusion of their report says that if either situation was likely a modified option, more like Option Two, may be demanded.

They also expressed concern over accountability towards local requirements when the PCTs are remodelled across Cheshire.