Plans for changes to wards and beds at Furness General Hospital will be the focus of an extraordinary meeting of Westmorland and Furness Council’s Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee next week.
The meeting will be held in public at Barrow Town Hall on 27 November at 1.30pm. The committee is composed of elected councillors from Westmorland & Furness Council.
The decision to call an extraordinary meeting reflects the significant concerns of committee members, and other local community representatives, about the planned reconfiguration of wards and beds and the level of public and stakeholder engagement undertaken to this point by Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and University Hospitals Morecambe Bay Trust.
The meeting will provide an opportunity for committee members to ask questions and for NHS representatives to provide further detail behind the plans and explain the reasoning for their approach to public engagement so far. Committee will consider the feedback and whether to make recommendations for action.
Cllr Dyan Jones, Chair of Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said:
“The changes planned at Furness General Hospital are understandably causing real public concern, as is the approach that the NHS has taken in reaching this decision. Committee was made aware of these plans only shortly before the information became public, and just a few weeks before some of the changes would be made. In these circumstances we felt it was necessary to take the unusual step of calling an extraordinary meeting to ensure these plans could be properly scrutinised in public.
“The committee understands the financial pressures facing the NHS and that decisions must be made about how to best use the resources available, but where those decisions are significant, we do have a duty to ask questions and represent our community.”
Echoing Cllr Jones’ comments, Cllr Tony Callister, Chair of Furness Locality Board, said:
“I welcome that the decisions made by the Trust are being looked at by our scrutiny committee. In addition, Furness Locality Board will also be undertaking an investigation in early December into why these decisions have been made without consultation.”
Under the terms of the Local Government Act 2000, the purpose of health scrutiny is to strengthen the voice of local people, ensuring that their needs and experiences are considered an integral part of the commissioning and delivery of health services and that those services are effective and safe.
The committee has the power to require information to be provided by certain NHS bodies about the planning, provision and operation of health services and require NHS employees to attend before them to answer questions.