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TSA Recommendations Published 8th January
2013
Following the public consultation, the Trust Special
Administrator (TSA) for South London Healthcare NHS Trust has
published his recommendations for the Secretary of State.
This is available online
here. The Secretary of State will now be making a
decision and announcement on the recommendations by early
February.
A spokesperson for Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust said:
“Clearly, we cannot comment in detail on the report as we have
not received a copy in advance, and need time to analyse it
fully.
“We do support merging with Queen Elizabeth, which is one of the
recommendations. However, we do not agree with the TSA’s
prescriptive approach to service change, which would result in
local emergency services being closed and maternity services being
downgraded. As a successful organisation, we have said we would
like to determine the future of services ourselves, and we would
include proper engagement with stakeholders and the
public.
“We are grateful for the support we have received from patients,
the public, GPs, healthcare professionals, MPs and partners.”
The spokesperson added:
“All our services are continuing to run as normal. If the
Secretary of State does decide to make changes, it would take place
over a three year period, and alternative arrangements would have
to be in place first.”
Background
There has been widespread media coverage on potential changes to
NHS services in Lewisham. It is important to stress that all
our services are running as normal, and no plans for change have
been decided yet. The Trust Special Administrator (TSA) will
be making his final recommendations in the New Year, and the
Secretary of State will be making his decision in February
2013.
If the Secretary of State decides to change services, it will take
place over a three year period, and alternative arrangements would
have to be in place first.
Trust Board response to the consultation
The TSA’s consultation ended on 13 December. Lewisham
Healthcare NHS Trust’s Board has submitted its formal response
which is available
here (appendices here and
here).
The Trust Board’s position is summarised below:
• We provide essential healthcare for a deprived and
ethnically diverse local population
• We are extremely proud of our record of improving care and
meeting clinical and
financial targets
• We accept difficult decision need to be taken given the
challenging environment
• We support the proposal to merge our Trust with Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, but we do
not believe a prescriptive approach to service change
is the right one
• We believe that the TSA’s recommendations will result in
worse health care for local
people
• We have major concerns over the TSA process and the
perceived lack of transparency
• Our clinicians tell us they have been engaged in the TSA
process but not listened to
• We do not support the detailed and specific service
transformation recommendations
made by the TSA
• We have concerns about the deliverability of the Community
Based Care Strategy
• We do not support the shift of emergency services away from
Lewisham
• There is an extraordinary lack of attention to children’s
services in the TSA’s report
• We strongly believe obstetric-led maternity services should
be provided in Lewisham
• We strongly support the development of an elective surgery
centre at Lewisham
• The pivotal role we play in education and training has been
overlooked by the TSA
• The site plan for Lewisham has insufficient capacity even to
deliver the services
proposed
• We do not believe there is a convincing case for radical
change of services at
Lewisham
Find out more
The recommendations for change were made by the Trust Special
Administrator (TSA) for a neighbouring organisation, South London
Healthcare NHS Trust. The TSA ran a public consultation until
13 December, and all the responses are being considered. For
more information, visit:: www.tsa.nhs.uk.