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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Swansea NHS Trust must engage with its partners on future of local hospitals
September 30, 2006 2:27 PM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has called on Swansea NHS Trust to stop planning the future of Singleton and Morriston Hospitals behind closed doors and to start engaging with its partners and the public on the way forward.
Mr. Black was speaking following the publication of minutes of a private Trust meeting at which senior management discussed with consultants the idea of closing down Singleton Hospital and moving all its services to the Morriston Hospital site. The minutes make it clear that building a brand new hospital at Felindre is not the Trust's main option. These proposals are dismissed as having "planning risks".
"Whatever the merits or otherwise of this discussion the overriding impression given by these minutes is that of the Trust acting alone," said Mr. Black. "Assembly Government guidance says that health bodies should work together and share resources and expertise so as to get the best value for money and the highest possible quality of service."
"It is obvious from these minutes that Swansea NHS Trust has failed to engage even its own partners in the work it is doing on the single-site hospital. Absent from the list of attendees are Swansea Council Social Services, the Local Health Board, the Unions, the Community Health Council, the Assembly Government and many other interested parties. When the Trust does not even extend an invitation to its own partners to participate in working up one of the most significant health developments in the Swansea area since the creation of the NHS, then they should not be surprised that others view them as less than inclusive, accountable or transparent on this and other issues."
"The Trust's Acting Chief Executive has accused me of 'mischief-making' and of 'mis-representing the situation' and yet the minutes are crystal-clear. What is not so transparent is how the decision to create a single site hospital will be taken and on what criteria it will be based. Surely, it is a matter of public interest when the local NHS Trust starts to discuss the closure of a well-established and much-loved General Hospital. Why would an attempt to bring those discussions into the public domain be considered mischief-making?"
"The Trust must start to engage its partners and the public in these discussions now or risk the possibility that decisions it takes in isolation will be rejected."
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