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Saveprh - epetition reply

4 December 2007

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Intervene to stop the closure of the A&E and maternity units at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath."

Details of Petition:

"Ever since the merger of the NHS trust running Princess Royal Hospital with the Brighton one, vital services have been moving from Princess Royal to Brighton. In 2005 trauma services moved despite massive local opposition. PRH is right by the M23, Gatwick Airport and main London to Brighton train line. Brighton hospital is on the coast in the middle of the city with congested road access and no helipad. Patients have an extra 40-minute journey in a blue-light ambulance. Brighton cannot currently cope with volume of trauma cases and regularly diverts patients to other hospitals. It cannot cope with the 3,000 or so births due to take place there. It makes no sense to add another 2,500 births from the PRH. These plans are supposed to fund future improvements for local people: they ignore the health needs of hundreds of thousands of people in central Sussex whose lives will be at risk in long ambulance journeys and whose babies will be born in cars and ambulances on the road to Brighton."

Read the Government's response

The Government understands your concerns regarding hospital services and proposals to improve healthcare services for the people of West Sussex and, specifically, at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath. Although the Department of Health provides strategic leadership to the NHS and social care organisations in England, proposals for the reconfiguration of services are a matter for the NHS locally, working in conjunction with clinicians, patients and other stakeholders. These organisations are best placed to respond to patients' concerns and needs.

The Government understand that the public consultation process concerning the future of the four existing acute general hospital sites in West Sussex (St Richard's Hospital, Chichester, Worthing Hospital, Southlands Hospital, Shoreham-by-Sea and Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath) ended on 14 November but final decisions have yet to be made.

The final decision is subject to scrutiny from the local authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC), which is made up of elected local councillors.

In July, the Secretary of State, Alan Johnson, announced that all referrals from OSCs should be referred to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), the independent experts on service change, who will analyse and consider matters further.

The Secretary of State sought advice from the IRP on the referral received from the West Sussex County Council. The IRP is currently considering the referral and its advice will be published on its website at: http://www.irpanel.org.uk/

As the recommendations of the IRP are published, such scrutiny will ensure that proposals for the reconfiguration of local healthcare services in West Sussex are made in the best interests of clinical need, patient care and not financial concerns.

West Sussex Primary Care Trust will make a decision with regard to the redistribution of services to best fit the needs of the local communities in due course.

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