Hundreds attend hospital meeting
I was delighted to see a good crowd at Whitehaven Civic Hall for the hospitals public meeting. I suspect there were probably about three hundred people present.
The meeting was organised by the local NHS Trusts as part of their review of acute hospital services in the North Cumbria NHS area (which includes West Cumbria.)
Some interesting announcements by the Trust - it was confirmed that although it is more likely that they will want to build a new hospital on a new site in West Cumbria they have not ruled out the possibility of refurbishing the existing site.
One particularly interesting quote from the Chief Executive of the Acute Services NHS Trust, Marie Burnham, was that if Downing Street had their way there would only be one district general hospital for North Cumbria. She also said that there had been no capital investment in the West Cumberland for ten years up until about 18 months ago - referring to the money spent since then as being due to better financial management.
The evening's most amusing slip of the tongue - when asked a question about the number of beds that the new hospital would have Marie Burnham accidentally referred to this as "the no-beds question." However, she then made the much more serious point that current bed utilisation at the West Cumberland is 91% and to avoid MRSA you need to aim for 80% - which suggests to me that there is not much room for cutting bed numbers if you want to maintain the level of service.
I spoke about the need for a positive vision for the future and suggested that the Trust should work at the earliest possible stage with the University of Central Lancashire and those who are seeking to bring a University campus to Whitehaven. Our long term aim must be a teaching hospital so that the best and brightest doctors and key professionals will want to come to Cumbria.
Marie Burnham, confirmed that the trusts are in discussions with the Universities and are keen to establish University input to develop the role of the hospitals in North Cumbria as teaching hospitals.
We now have until the end of February to get our views to the trusts, as this marks the conclusion of the present round of public consultation.
The meeting was organised by the local NHS Trusts as part of their review of acute hospital services in the North Cumbria NHS area (which includes West Cumbria.)
Some interesting announcements by the Trust - it was confirmed that although it is more likely that they will want to build a new hospital on a new site in West Cumbria they have not ruled out the possibility of refurbishing the existing site.
One particularly interesting quote from the Chief Executive of the Acute Services NHS Trust, Marie Burnham, was that if Downing Street had their way there would only be one district general hospital for North Cumbria. She also said that there had been no capital investment in the West Cumberland for ten years up until about 18 months ago - referring to the money spent since then as being due to better financial management.
The evening's most amusing slip of the tongue - when asked a question about the number of beds that the new hospital would have Marie Burnham accidentally referred to this as "the no-beds question." However, she then made the much more serious point that current bed utilisation at the West Cumberland is 91% and to avoid MRSA you need to aim for 80% - which suggests to me that there is not much room for cutting bed numbers if you want to maintain the level of service.
I spoke about the need for a positive vision for the future and suggested that the Trust should work at the earliest possible stage with the University of Central Lancashire and those who are seeking to bring a University campus to Whitehaven. Our long term aim must be a teaching hospital so that the best and brightest doctors and key professionals will want to come to Cumbria.
Marie Burnham, confirmed that the trusts are in discussions with the Universities and are keen to establish University input to develop the role of the hospitals in North Cumbria as teaching hospitals.
We now have until the end of February to get our views to the trusts, as this marks the conclusion of the present round of public consultation.
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