Four years ago the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust started a review of acute services in Worcestershire. As we know so well in Wyre Forest, health issues are a highly political arena. In Redditch, where there was a possibility that they may lose their A+E department, a Save The Alex campaign was set up. In Wyre Forest I encouraged a cross party approach - The Hospital Alliance.
The last four years have been utterly tortuous. We are still no closer to finding a conclusion to this process than we were three years ago, when two preferred alternatives were put forward (both good for Kidderminster's hospital, with more services coming to our town). But the process threw up another alternative that the Save the Alex campaign gripped hold of - the transfer of the Alex in Redditch to University Hospitals Birmingham Trust. Interestingly this move would also result in downgrading the A+E department, but apparently this was acceptable to Save the Alex.
In 2016 not only do we not have a conclusion, but the trust has seen significant resignations of consultants and doctors (who understandably want job security), by senior managers (including the finance director and the chief executive), and last week by the chairman. The trust is now in special measures (which may help), but we still have no conclusion to the services review.
Save the Alex still want their hospital to be transferred to UHB, but it is not as simple as that. Were this to happen, the remaining two hospitals would be unsustainable as a standalone trust and so the most likely outcome would be a breaking up of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust. An open tender would be offered on the Kidderminster and Worcester hospitals and whilst it is likely that Dudley would take over Kidderminster, it is not impossible that a private provider (for example) could take over our hospital. In short, the two proposals put forward for reconfiguration provide a reasonable outcome (especially for us in Wyre Forest); any other alternative outcome would result in profound uncertainty about the future of our services not just in Kidderminster but across the whole county.
I raised this in Parliament last week and we are organising a meeting with minsters to untangle this awful mess. I know that people in Wyre Forest want excellent health services across the county and more services in Kidderminster. That is entirely possible if we adopt either of the proposals offered by the WAHT - proposals rejected by just a minority in Redditch.