6 July 2011
Representatives from charities, local councils and patients’ panels met last week (27 June 2011) to help shape the future of St Helier Hospital.
18 people attended the event, which gave them a unique opportunity to influence how the formal ‘bid’ – from St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust – to merge with St Helier Hospital would be assessed.
After expressing their interest in June, St George’s will now be formally invited to ‘tender’ to merge with St Helier, which is unable to achieve foundation trust status as part of its current partnership with Epsom Hospital.
After a presentation explaining the process that is being followed to get the hospital to foundation trust status, participants then took part in an exercise where they discussed, evaluated and ‘weighted’ the criteria by which merger proposals will be measured. The criteria include:
• The benefits the merger will deliver for patients;
• The new organisation’s plans for managing, supporting and developing staff;
• Whether the partnership offers good value to the taxpayer;
• Whether the final option delivers better care for local residents.
Jan Sawkins is the independent chair of the special Transaction Board, set up to help the Trust’s hospitals achieve foundation trust status. She said: “This event gave people an opportunity to tell us what is important to them by completing the scoring of the formal evaluation criteria.
“We have made a firm commitment to involve local people, patients and our staff as much as possible throughout this process. It’s important that the criteria by which we are required to judge potential partners, both for St Helier and Epsom hospitals, reflects the preferences and concerns of their local communities.
“The choices people make in these exercises – whether they are a local councillor, a patient, or a member of the public – will directly influence the final decision.”
Jan continued: “Keeping people informed throughout this process is a priority for us, and further open meetings are planned. I would encourage anybody with even a passing interest in their local hospital to come along, learn about what’s going on and, crucially, to ask questions.
“Unless people engage with us, we can only guess what their concerns might be. Through talking to us, we are in a strong position to approach potential partners and say ‘this is what your prospective patients and stakeholders are saying ’.”
A second criteria-weighting event involving local representatives, this time regarding Epsom Hospital, took place on Monday 4 July 2011. Similar events have also taken place for staff and volunteers at Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals.
