02.09.16
Trust faces questions from council over children’s A&E services closure
The head of a trust which announced it was being forced to suspend emergency services for children at one hospital will appear before her local council to answer questions about the decision.
Liz Rix, chief nurse and acting deputy chief executive of the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, will appear before Staffordshire County Council’s Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee at 3pm on 19 September.
The trust announced last week that it is temporarily suspending services at the Children’s Emergency Centre at County Hospital in Stafford.
Cllr Kath Perry, chair of the committee, said: “The sudden suspension of the A&E will undoubtedly cause not just inconvenience, but real concern for families in Stafford and the surrounding areas.
“The meeting will be an opportunity for the trust to explain how these issues have been allowed to develop and what plans are being put in place to address them.”
The decision follows a meeting of Stafford Borough Council where the council leader, Cllr Patrick Farrington, called on the Healthy Staffordshire Committee to investigate the issue.
Cllr Farrington has also arranged a meeting with Rix.
He told fellow councillors: “Let's be clear, a three-year-old should not be left in pain, a parent should not have to drive to Wolverhampton with her young son in pain with a broken arm, a mother should not have to take her 10-year-old son with a broken collar bone to be turned away and told to go to Stoke.
“These are some examples of the unacceptable consequences of the decision to suspend the Children's Emergency Centre here in Stafford when it has been a well-used, well-respected centre, staffed by hard working and caring staff who are also shocked at the decision.”
The centre only opened last year, but the trust took the decision to temporarily suspend its services after the West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS) raised concerns about its staffing levels.
Cllr Farrington said it would be “wrong and dangerous” for the council to “interfere with a clinical decision to suspend services”. “We have no right to criticise the decision per se if it is made on grounds of safety to patients,” he added.
(Image c. Joe Giddens from PA Wire and Press Association Images)
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