COMMISSIONERS MAKE THE DECISION TO GO OUT TO PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED CHANGES TO HOSPITAL SERVICES

This is the most up to date press release we have received from the Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Groups regarding the changes at Huddersfield Infirmary.

NEWS RELEASE

Wednesday January 20^th 2016

COMMISSIONERS MAKE THE DECISION TO GO OUT TO PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED CHANGES TO HOSPITAL SERVICES

The Governing  Bodies of NHS Greater Huddersfield and NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have today agreed that consultation on the future of hospital services can get underway.

The CCGs will now finalise plans for consultation and agree a launch date, which is expected to be in February.

The plans will set out all the ways that people can find out more about the proposed changes and provide their views. This will include information events and roadshows at locations across Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale.

Details of the consultation launch, public events and how to access information will be issued to the media and available on NHS websites and social media.

Chair of NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG, Dr Steve Ollerton said:
“People are very passionate about their local health services and that passion was evident at today’s meeting. We share that passion and that is why we are very eager to get out and talk to the public about our proposals. We know there is significant interest in the proposed changes and we are keen to listen to views. There are also some misconceptions out there and we will look forward to explaining our reasoning and processes to the public.”

Over the past three years the CCGs and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust have engaged with public, patients, carers, staff and healthcare professionals to help them understand what the future of hospital and community services could look like as part of the Right Care, Right Time, Right Place programme.

The pre-consultation business case sets out a preferred model of care where all emergency, acute and high risk planned care will be brought together at Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) and the Huddersfield site will be developed as a hospital dedicated for planned care.

Under the proposals, there would be:

• an Urgent Care Centre in both Huddersfield and Halifax for people with urgent  but  non-life threatening needs which would treat sprains, strains, broken bones, wound infections,  minor burns and scalds.
• an Emergency Care Centre at Calderdale Royal Hospital for the smaller number of patients with life threatening injuries or illnesses such as loss of consciousness, severe chest pain or severe bleeding.

The smaller number of people with serious or life threatening multiple injuries would be treated at a Specialist or Major Emergency Centre, such as Leeds or Wakefield.

Chair of Calderdale CCG, Dr Alan Brook said:  “The proposed changes are backed by a team of national experts and will improve the quality, safety and sustainability of hospital services and bring them into line with national standards for the best clinical care.”

The new model of care would be supported by further strengthening community services.

Consultation Process

• No final decisions have been made about the way in which our hospitals should work.

  The purpose of our consultation is to enable the CCGs to:

  1. describe why they believe change is necessary, and to improve understanding about the need for change
  2. describe the way in which the CCGs believe they can ensure the best opportunity to secure hospital services for Huddersfield and Halifax into the future.
  3. Seek views about how people believe the CCGs can make the system work more effectively
  4. To test out whether there are other ideas which the CCGs have not considered.
• No final decisions will be made until the CCGs have concluded consultation and have properly considered the information that we have gathered through consultation.
• During that time the CCGs will be working with the Joint Scrutiny arrangements operating between the councils of Calderdale and Kirklees MBCs to ensure that they have satisfied their requirements and enabled them to fulfil their duties.
• The CCGs believe that the earliest that we will be in a position to make final decisions will be Autumn 2016.

CCG Key Messages – Proposed Changes to Hospital Services

• Our plans will secure the future of health services in Huddersfield and Calderdale for the next 20 years.
• The proposals will require there to be significant investment in both towns.
• We will do this by creating two state of the art hospital buildings; one on the Huddersfield site and one by further developing the existing hospital in Halifax.
• We are already re-organising services so that more care is provided in the community, closer to home.
• The proposed changes will ensure that our hospitals improve compliance against national standards for the best clinical care, delivered 7 days a week.
• Urgent care will be provided in both Huddersfield and Calderdale. The Huddersfield site will be developed to enable it to be our Planned Care Hospital.
• The Halifax site will be developed to enable it to be the Emergency care Hospital.
• The proposals will make full use of modern state of art Calderdale Royal Hospital to the benefit of both populations.
• Our proposals will improve quality and safety for the whole population of Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.
• We have strong foundations for care outside the hospitals. Great steps have already been taken to improve services for local people across the community – at GP practices, health centres and hospitals.
• By doing this we will make the NHS in Huddersfield and Calderdale an attractive place to work, so we can attract and retain the very best staff to provide the right care, at the right time in the right place.

These plans will also make care more affordable and improve the financial position of both the hospital and the wider health economy.