The Princess Royal University Hospital

HEALTH professionals who will decide on the future of hospital care in south-east London have rejected many of the criticisms of the process.

The Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) was responding to some points made by councillors from the affected boroughs by the A Picture of Health consultation.

The councillors, from Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham, plus Lambeth and Southwark, who sit on the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, heard evidence from a variety of lay and professional bodies before giving their views on the consultation and the options on offer.

They criticised the process for being driven by financial rather than clinical needs.

In its response, the JCPCT says although "the interests of patients were firmly at the heart of discussions at all stages", it admits "there is a strong financial case".

It says the hospitals involved - Queen Mary's in Sidcup, the Princess Royal in Bromley, Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich and Lewisham - are "financially challenged".

And it adds "these financial issues must be addressed now before they start to impact on clinical safety".

The JCPCT has taken on board councillors' concerns about the ability of hospitals to cope with the volume of patients generated by proposed changes and says a capacity planning group is already working on the problem.

Councillors were highly critical of the consultation process, claiming it was difficult to understand and many people did not receive the consultation document.

The JCPCT, which is headed by Michael Chuter, says work on the consultation began as early as December 2006.

Imperial College, which has done similar work, was commissioned to draw up the questionnaire, and the public were involved in helping to refine the consultation document.

Nearly 700,000 documents were delivered door-to-door and in bulk to 931 health and community facilities by a professional distribution company whose work was checked by two other independent verification companies.

The JCPCT says there was not enough time to get a Plain English Campaign certificate for the consultation document, although the questionnaire was certificated.

It added: "Efforts were made to involve patients to make it as plain English as possible."

The JCPCT has not yet responded to criticisms about planned changes to maternity and children's services and will be doing more work on travel implications.

In response to the councillors' suggestion there should be a second consultation if none of the options were supported by the public, the JCPCT said: "The outcome of the consultation is one element we will take into account."

EXPLAINING CHOICES

THE consultation offered three options for the future of the four hospitals.

All involved stripping Queen Mary's of its emergency services, including A&E, maternity and inpatient children's care, and making it a centre for planned surgery.

One option suggested keeping the Princess Royal and Queen Elizabeth as the only emergency hospitals in the area, removing Lewisham of its all emergency services and creating a second centre for planned surgery.

A second option retained Lewisham Hospital as a third fully-functioning emergency hospital.

The third option was to take away maternity and inpatient children's services at Lewisham and allow it to take non-surgical emergencies only.

9:28am Monday 7th July 2008

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