Anyone interested in the development of local health services is invited to come along to a special briefing session on the Primary Care Trust’s Community Services Strategy.
The briefing, for councillors and members of the public, will take place after a full NFDC council meeting at the Lyndhurst Park Hotel on Monday June 13, at 6.30pm. The PCT briefing will be the last item on the agenda of an extraordinary council meeting called to discuss the council’s Performance Plan.
John Richards, chief executive of the New Forest PCT, will attend the meeting along with other PCT officers to give an outline of the forthcoming public consultation process.
“The purpose of this part of the meeting is to inform councillors and members of the public of the Primary Care Trust’s forthcoming consultation on the delivery of services in the New Forest, with particular regard to services for adults and older people,” said Cllr Melville Kendal, leader of New Forest District Council. “An outline will be given of the consultation process as well as the two potential models of the inevitable changes in health service delivery, one of which could involve closing all community hospital beds.”
A paper outlining options for community services for adults and older people in both the New Forest and Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT areas was first presented to the PCT boards in March. Following extensive initial consultation on this draft, two models of care will now be put to formal public consultation.
These include having a comprehensive network of expanded and strengthened services based in the community, with a reduction in the number of hospital beds, or the reprovision of all community inpatient beds to services in the community.
Research outlined by the PCT suggests that many elderly people would prefer to be cared for in their own homes, with adequate support, and that many people in community hospital beds do not need to be there.
“Further details of these models will become available during the course of the consultation process over the months ahead, but it is important that council members understand the objectives involved so that they can subsequently form views on the best way in which the district council as partners in the delivery of health services can frame their own policies and expenditure,” said Cllr Kendal.
“Clearly as stakeholders, we will wish to give our views as well, so that the PCT may take these into account in framing its final decisions when that stage of the process is reached. The district council’s cabinet will frame the ultimate response for the council and the meeting on June 13 will enable us, and the public, to understand more fully the issues involved,” he said.
The Friends of Lyndhurst Surgery and the League of Friends of the Fenwick Hospital have produced a petition pledging support for the Fenwick Hospital, with 4,300 signatures, which they intend to present to Cllr Kendal. |
