Cut in hospital beds could lead to strike action
BOROUGH TO RECEIVE SHARE OF £200M POT WHICH AIMS TO REDUCE NUMBER OF HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
A CONTROVERSIAL healthcare shake-up that could see a reduction in hospital beds has been given the green light in Stockport – and prompted a staff ballot for industrial action.
In March 2015 it was announced that the borough had been chosen to receive a share of a £200m ‘transformation fund’ to bring together hospital and community care, with the aim of reducing the number of hospital admissions.
According to Dr Ranjit Gill, chief clinical officer at Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the idea is that people – especially those who are elderly and frail – receive more effective care in their home setting, so the chances of them becoming ill and needing emergency hospital admission reduce.
“This gives us an opportunity to reconfigure and reduce the bed numbers at Stepping Hill Hospital,” he said. It is not known how many beds could be lost, as it will depend on the success of the attempts to reduce hospital admissions.
The scheme, called Stockport Together, is a partnership between Stockport council, Stepping Hill, Pennine Care and the CCG.
A consultation exercise was carried out in October and November of last year, the results of which have now been published.
Health bosses say analysis of the results show ‘overwhelming support for the outline strategic proposals.’
However, concerns were expressed on the subject of reducing hospital beds – in the street survey over half of people said they would ‘disagree or strongly disagree’ that the proposed tests for the possible reduction of beds are appropriate. Dr Gill says the proposals, which bring together GPs, hospitals, community nurses, mental health and social care teams – which traditionally have operated separately – are not about cutting services but rather making better use of the money they have. The investment proposals for Stockport Together were approved by the CCG at a meeting last week. But they have sparked a backlash from Unison, which has called the plans ‘dangerous’ and say they would reduce the availability of services at peak times. A consultative ballot on the possibility of industrial action was held in January, and negotiations between the union, NHS and council chiefs is ongoing.
This gives us an opportunity to reconfigure and reduce bed numbers at Stepping Hill Dr Ranjit Gill