Plans for changes to wards and beds at Furness General Hospital were the focus of a meeting of Westmorland and Furness Council’s Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The decision to call the meeting on Wednesday reflected the concerns of committee members, and other local community representatives, about the planned reconfiguration of wards and beds and the public and stakeholder engagement undertaken so far by Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.
The meeting provided an opportunity for committee members to ask questions and for NHS representatives to provide further detail behind the plans and their approach to public engagement so far.
The committee agreed three key recommendations:
- That the trust works together with the committee to put better measures in place to communicate future changes to the committee, and ultimately the public.
- That the timeframe for the reconfiguration be reconsidered to allow additional engagement with the public on the proposals.
- Details of the mitigations planned around the changes to ward 5 at Furness General Hospital highlighted in the Equality Impact Assessment be made public and communicated clearly to the committee.
Cllr Dyan Jones, chair of Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “This was a productive meeting about an issue of real public concern.
“I am pleased we were able to provide a space for an open discussion and for committee members to speak directly to local NHS senior managers. I welcome their attendance, helping the committee reach its recommendations.
“We recognise and understand the financial pressures facing the NHS and that decisions must be made about how to best use the resources available.
“However, the scrutiny committee emphasises the importance of open dialogue and we will continue to encourage the NHS to broaden their consultation to include the public who will be impacted directly by these proposals, as the NHS negotiates the complex choices they need to make.
“We await a clear plan for greater public engagement on these matters before changes are implemented.”
After the meeting, Aaron Cummins, chief executive of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust said: “We were pleased to be able to attend the health scrutiny meeting and provide clarity to the councillors on the committee about our proposals, and provide reassurance to them about the bright future we envisage for Furness General Hospital.
“It was also good to provide explanation that the plans are in part possible due to the partnership working between the trust, the council and the Integrated Care Board.
“We were also grateful to them articulating public views on the proposals, which we will be able to feed into our final plans following the current consultation we are undertaking with colleagues within the trust.
“Once we have completed this consultation we will share our final proposals with the committee and look forward to working with them in the future in the best interests of the people across Westmorland and Furness.
“As the committee heard – the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board are responsible for public engagement and consultation around proposals of major change and will provide us with their view once the proposals are finalised.”
