LETTER TO THE EDITORS OF THE MID SUSSEX TIMES AND THE MID SUSSEX LEADER

Sir,

May I use the courtesy of your column to reply to a letter published while I was on holiday about my position on the Princess Royal Hospital and the A&E and the Best Care, Best Place consultation.

For the last seven years I have devoted a great deal of time and effort, together with many other people to trying to secure and maintain a full range of services at our excellent Princess Royal Hospital. This lengthy campaign started with a meeting on the 31st August 2000 which nearly 700 people attended at Clair Hall in Haywards Heath, as a result of which we managed to see off a proposal to close the A&E altogether at the Princess Royal Hospital, which I described at the time as being “reckless, foolish and overall wholly lacking in common sense and practicality”.

I followed this up with leading a delegation to see the Minister of State for Health and a further debate in the House of Commons in November 2001 and since that date and the decision to retain the A&E, I have made it first order business to try to ensure that my constituents and those living in the wider Mid Sussex area have health services that are comprehensive, of high quality, accessible and overall safe.

I campaigned vigorously over the question of the A&E in the Best Care, Best Place consultation; again we had a magnificent public meeting last November, and I secured another debate in the House of Commons on the 16th March this year. I also took an all Party delegation to see Dr John Reid, the then Secretary of State for Health, to explain to him our extreme anxieties over what was being proposed.

Dr Reid told the delegation that the sole basis on which this consultation could be called in for the Secretary of State’s decision was only if the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee referred it to him.

To my dismay and that of many others, inexplicably they did not, and major emergency trauma surgery has now moved to Brighton.

I do feel that local opinion was trampled on, and as I have said on many occasions before, little or no regard appeared to be given to the excellent and highly knowledgeable views of many local people, at the time of the consultation.

I accept the assurance and guarantee that was given to me on the floor of the House of Commons by John Hutton MP, Minister of State for Health, on the 16th March this year that “There is no question of A&E services being downgraded or becoming a minor injuries unit. That is not going to happen.” But I also accept now the proposition put forward by Professor Sir George Alberti, the NHS’s principal adviser on A&E services, that the safety and security of patients needing major surgical trauma care is better secured by them going to Brighton. Surely that must be the test and I accept this professional judgment.

Further, I have made it absolutely clear to Ministers and local Health Service Managers that I regard it as essential that we retain full maternity services at the Princess Royal Hospital and I have had a substantial number of meetings and consultations to this end.

I believe that not to have such services would be socially unacceptable in an area where huge growth is forecast and where there is already substantial demand.

As the local MP I remain very anxious at the genuine anxiety over these changes, and I have accordingly volunteered to chair a meeting at which some of the consultants and Professor Sir George Alberti himself will explain exactly where we stand.

But let us not get all this out of proportion

We have a very good hospital and excellent staff who are dedicated to the care of local people; we have a good Primary Care Service in Mid Sussex and what we now need to see is sound management, good leadership and excellent co-operation throughout the Trust, with all the consultants playing their full part.

There remains the outstanding question of the lack of financial resources which I am actively lobbying the Government about.

Yours sincerely,

Nicholas Soames MP