Health & Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 8/11/2011 Vascular Services move from Arrowe Park Hospital to Countess of Chester hospital

Unusually about forty people were in the audience of last night’s meeting, so many that Committee Room 2 had to be opened up so everybody had somewhere to sit. The proceedings were interrupted several times, with the Chair calling for calm. The committee heard from one of the consultants at Arrowe Park Hospital Mr R … Continue reading “Health & Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 8/11/2011 Vascular Services move from Arrowe Park Hospital to Countess of Chester hospital”

Unusually about forty people were in the audience of last night’s meeting, so many that Committee Room 2 had to be opened up so everybody had somewhere to sit.

The proceedings were interrupted several times, with the Chair calling for calm. The committee heard from one of the consultants at Arrowe Park Hospital Mr R Chandrasekar. It also heard from:-

Kathy Doran, Chief Executive of NHS Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral (West Cheshire)
Gary Doherty, Acting Chief Executive Wirral University Teaching Hospital (the NHS Trust that covers Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals) NHS Foundation Trust
Peter Herring, Chief Executive Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust

The Labour Chair read out the long history of the matter, stating that more people would be inconvenienced by longer journeys to the Countess of Chester, that Wirral had higher rates of vascular disease, that Arrowe Park Hospital was a renal centre and that it met the four criteria.

She then proposed a motion. Her motion called for the matter to be referred to Wirral Council’s Cabinet, however a Conservative amendment (accepted by Labour as friendly) agreed that vascular services shouldn’t be moved from Arrowe Park Hospital to Chester but called for a report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee after the 12 week public consultation on the change (which will run from December to February of next year).

The amended motion was accepted and agreed unanimously by all councillors.

Cabinet meeting – 14th April 2011 – Election Special Edition – Part 1

Tonight you could tell an election was in the air as Cllr Green joked with Cllr Clarke over leaflet deliveries, a sense of de ja vu as Cllr Kelly returns to the Cabinet and some surreal humour about dreams as well as a good smattering that has at times been missing from previous (sometimes lengthy) Cabinet meetings.

Declarations of Interests:-

Cllr Elderton declared a personal and prejudicial interest in item 26. Cllr Lewis declared a personal interest in item 27 as a resident of New Brighton. Cllr Green declared an interest as a hospital governor.

The Cabinet then received a short presentation from Mr. Richards regarding the opportunities and challenges for Wirral University Teaching Hospital. He drew on his more than 5 years experience as Chief Exec and described what the Wirral Excellence in Healthcare System regarding patient centred changed was, their IT system Wirral Millennium and detail about electronic health records. He talked about collaboration with the Countess of Chester hospital and the use of the various sites – St. Catherines, Victoria Central Hospital, GPs and local authority premises.

He then went on to talk about the challenges facing the NHS ranging from length of stay and Social services, re-admissions, infection control, the patient experience and specialisation. He explained the challenges they face from their regulators Monitor and the Care Quality Commission (who carry out unannounced visits). On the financial side he explained how they aim to make savings of £42 million over the next 3 years and the effect that the GP consortia and Health & Wellbeing Board will have.