SOAMES AND LEADER AND DEPUTY LEADER OF MSDC MEET CHIEF EXEC OF WEST SUSSEX PRIMARY CARE TRUST
Mid Sussex MP, Nicholas Soames together with Councillor Patrick Shanahan, Leader of Mid Sussex District Council, and Councillor Gordon Marples, Deputy Leader of MSDC, today met with Executives of the new West Sussex Primary Care Trust to be briefed on the Strategic Health Authority and the PCT’s proposals for service changes in the local NHS.
Commenting on the meeting Nicholas Soames said; “We pointed out to the NHS Managers that Mid Sussex has just been through a traumatic consultation with Best Care, Best Place which was represented to all of us locally as being the way ahead for the future for our local NHS services and we are therefore appalled to hear of the possibility of very substantial further changes that might take place in a paper to be published in October by the Strategic Health Authority about the future shape of services in West Sussex.
“Whilst understanding that the Government have ordered the local health authorities to get rid of their substantial deficits we believe it should not be at the expense of excellent local health services based at the Princess Royal. We insisted that as outlined in Best Care, Best Place there should be a full A&E and that the new style maternity services should stay as well as all other services necessary for a growing population with a substantial increase in population to come through excessive house building ordered by the Government.”
Mr Soames said; “Councillor Shanahan and Councillor Marples pointed out that it was essential to retain public confidence in the management of the NHS and we all demanded that the West Sussex PCT should set out in public at the first opportunity the scale of the problems that it has been instructed to deal with and the timing of the appearance of the proposals and the detailed consultation.
“We are deeply concerned by the apparent scale of what is to be proposed and we are determined to fight with all the resources at our command to ensure that local people have a really good health service and that our wonderful hospital is properly funded.
“We are considering urgently what steps to take next and the PCT will be announcing a pre-consultation public meeting in early September to which we hope many Mid Sussex residents will attend to defend our local health service.
“We will be working closely with Nick Herbert, Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs in these endeavours and with the other West Sussex Members of Parliament, Nicolas Gibb, Tim Loughton, Andrew Tyrie and Peter Bottomley in their endeavours.”
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