A
deputation of members of the Haslar Task Force, led by Gosport
MP Peter Viggers, today met with Health Minister, Lord Warner,
to try to persuade him to refer health plans for the Gosport
and Fareham region to an independent panel for scrutiny.
However, the Minister
had apparently also arranged to see the Chairman and Chief
Executive of the Fareham and Gosport
Primary Care Trust – immediately prior to seeing the
Haslar Task Force.
Peter said of
the meeting “It was obvious that the
Minister had been briefed to defend the status quo and said
it was unrealistic for anyone to believe that the PFI project
at Queen Alexandra Hospital should be stopped at this stage.
We pointed out that the healthcare proposals took no account
of the concerns of Hampshire County Council, and that the
PCT itself had been the subject of a vote of no confidence
by Gosport Borough Council. Therefore, the best option would
be to refer the decision to the Independent Reconfiguration
Panel for a third-party assessment.
“Lord Warner
said that the PFI bid would be signed off very soon, but
my information is that this will not happen
until October. When the IRP was last given a referral on
hospital plans elsewhere in the country, it reported back
exactly two months to the day it was instructed. Therefore
this would allow plenty of time for the panel to consider
plans for Gosport and Fareham before the October deadline.
“I also informed Lord Warner that when the PFI was
proposed it was stated the War Memorial Hospital was favoured
over Haslar because more money would then be available to
pour into the PFI project – entirely contrary to the
Department of Health’s Guidance on ‘Keeping the
NHS Local’.
“Lord Warner
blocked further discussion of the PFI project and switched
to the Gosport situation. We made clear
the fact that no-one is accepting responsibility for local
healthcare after 31 March 2007, and there is unlikely to
be enough support from the PFI until at least 2010. It has
been proven time and again that health care in the medium
and longer term cannot be based on the provision of fewer
beds and fewer operating theatres than we have at present,
and that therefore Haslar should remain a vital piece of
future plans.
“We finally
managed to have this 45 minute meeting after it had been
cancelled and rescheduled by the Minister
at least six times. He said he would take account of the
points we raised and now we wait to see whether he does so.” |
