Following last week's children's consultation meeting, Chair Elizabeth Law explains what happens next...

On Tuesday 8 February, Gloucestershire’s three Primary Care Trusts will decide on the future of specialist in-patient health services for children and neo-natal intensive care for newborn babies at their individual Board meetings.

On January 19th, representatives of the three Trusts - which have responsibility for purchasing and providing health care for the county – agreed the following recommendations:

To locate intensive and high dependency care for newborns and the children’s in-patient ward at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

• To retain Special Care Baby Units and new-natal resuscitation at both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals
  
  
• To retain children’s assessment units at both hospitals, with increased seven day a week opening between 9am-10pm at Cheltenham General
  
  
• To invest in children’s home and community nursing, adding six new community nurses to create a countywide service
  

The outcome of the meeting was widely reported in the local media as a ‘done deal’, but without mention of some of the important recommendations that were agreed that evening.

Between now and the beginning of April, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will work up detailed plans of how the changes in children’s services – subject to PCT board agreement on 8 February – would be implemented.

During that time, we will also be looking closely at options for (a) an overnight nurse-led unit at Cheltenham General, or (b) developing a ‘hospital at home’ service. The latter might offer a wider, more flexible, countywide service that could provide one-to-one nursing care for children in their own homes.

I had expected that there would be considerable differences of opinion at the meeting on 19 January, as the issue had raised such anxiety and emotions in the Cheltenham and Cotswold areas.

I was impressed by the depth of thought and the preparation that individual members of the committee had undertaken prior to the meeting. They had attended many of the consultation meetings and had listened carefully to both the view of the public and the hospital doctors, nurses and staff.

The weight of their arguments were based on the safety for sick children in the future and the importance of, wherever possible, providing support and care for families in their own homes and secondly the issue of access and concerns re distances for travelling.

We also debated concerns about the recruitment of first-class medical and children’s nurses and whether Gloucestershire could, in the future, attract these within two units as distinct from one highly specialised unit. We took into account the views from the Hospitals Trust and our local Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC), which has been closely involved throughout the consultation.

Our recommendations to the three PCTs were that they accept as a package the above proposals, but ensure that those issues that needed to be considered in detail regarding implementation should have plans associated with them and submitted to both the PCTs and the OSC in the next two months.

Elizabeth Law

Chair for the Joint Sub-committee of the three PCTs in Gloucestershire