The purpose of the meeting was to let her know of the deep concerns in Halton about the future of the hospital and to discuss various options for the management of Halton Hospital and to impress upon the Minister to need to secure the long future of the Hospital.
One option that was suggested by Mike Hall and Derek Twigg was the possibility of Halton becoming a Community Hospital under separate management with either its own NHS Trust Board or under the management of the local Primary Care Trust.
The two Members of Parliament also raised with the Minister the problems of moving in-patient admissions to Warrington General Hospital. They also raised the issue of needing to have more activity at Halton Hospital and more investment to deliver improvements to services at the hospital. Also raised was the proposal of the Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority to commission Professor Sir George Alberti to give an independent clinical assessment of the proposals put forward by the North Cheshire Hospital Trust Board.
Mike Hall said “We had a very positive meeting with Jane Kennedy. She has agreed to look at the possibility of Halton Hospital becoming a Community Hospital under new management. This may provide us with answer to the long term future of our Hospital.”
Derek Twigg said “We welcome the appointment of Professor Alberti, who we are told is highly respected, to carry out an independent clinical assessment of the Trust Board proposals. We will be meeting him in the near future to impress upon him the concerns of the people of Halton. We need to establish what is safe and best practice. There clearly is different opinions on this and we need to resolve it. However to secure a long term future of Halton Hospital we need capital investment to improve services. We pressed Jane Kennedy on this point”.
Both M.Ps. said we are committed to securing the long term future of Halton Hospital. Whatever proposal are brought forward they will have to be fully consulted upon.