What happens next in HRI process

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to keep Huddersfield’s A&E open won a huge battle – but the war is far from over.

Councillors’ decision to refer the controversial Right Care Right Time Right Place plan to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt may only delay what some believe is inevitable.

Indeed no Health Secretary, Conservative or Labour, has ever overturned such a plan.

Members of the panel, who voted against sending the plan to Mr Hunt, warned that the plan could be worse when it returned from the minister’s desk.

We can only speculate on the specifics of the finalised plan; most of the costings have so far been withheld by NHS chiefs behind the plan on the grounds of ‘commercial sensitivity’.

We do however know what procedure the plan, which would close Huddersfield’s A&E and centralise emergency care in Halifax, will now go through:

The plan will now go before an Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) which is made up of NHS experts.

IRPs were set up in 2003 to advise health secretaries on contested NHS changes.

The IRP, which is independent of the Government and NHS authorities, will scrutinise the panel before making a recommendation to the health secretary.

The whole process can take years.

For example, a plan to shake up hospital services in North Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury was referred to an IRP.

Following a two-year public consultation the IRP recommended the downgrade of Rochdale’s A&E to an urgent care centre and the end of emergency surgery at Fairfield Hospital, Bury.

The equally unpopular proposal was ratified by the then health secretary Alan Johnson and fellow Labour minister Hazel Blears. Plans to downgrade Dewsbury’s A&E were referred to the IRP and ratified by Mr Hunt although that plan is currently on hold due to problems at Wakefield Pinderfields Hospital’s A&E.

Campaigners are acutely aware that Mr Hunt may send the plan back – possibly in an even less appealing format – and so there are hoping to mount a legal challenge which will lead to a judicial review.

Yes. Mr Hunt was overruled by the High Court over plans to close Lewisham Hospital’s A&E. The minister’s appeal was subsequently rejected.