Last updated at 11:18, Monday, 11 March 2013

MORE than 350 people turned out to a public meeting tonight to discuss the future of Furness General Hospital, with fears raised over ward closures, cost cutting and the future of maternity services.

The event, held at The Forum in Barrow, was hosted by Thousand Voices campaigners, who fear an ongoing review of services across Morecambe Bay could see Barrow’s maternity unit being downgraded from consultant-led to midwifery-led, dealing with only the most routine of births. The review is being carried out by the Cumbria and Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Groups, who are set to take over responsibility for deciding what health services are provided in their counties, in conjunction with UHMBT clinicians.
Tonight's meeting was planned following the University Hospital of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust’s recent decision – subsequently reversed – to transfer top-level services and the FGH special care baby unit to Lancaster due to a staffing crisis.
Questions surrounding what happened and what it means for the future were high on the agenda for the evening, but there was a lot more to the meeting than just maternity.
The panel, which included UHMBT chief executive and medical director, Jackie Daniel and George Nasmyth, lead commissioning GP for Furness, Geoff Jolliffe, and Barrow and Furness MP, John Woodcock, were questioned over a range of fears and rumours surrounding services at FGH.
Other concerns raised included the suggested closure of three wards, including one medical, one surgical and gynaecology, previously reported by the Evening Mail.
Challenged by several members of staff in the audience, Ms Daniel was forced to admit that the amount of money the trust needs to save means some beds must go. UHMBT needs to save £50m over the next five years and the ongoing service review will be a major part of its efforts to do that. Ms Daniel said any bed cuts would be done with as little effect on permanent employees' job security as possible, especially as the trust is currently spending too much on locum and agency staff, and that more information would be shared with the workforce next week.
Other issues raised by the newspaper over recent months and brought back to the public’s attention at the meeting included the proposed removal of specialist vascular services from UHMBT, the suggested shift from freshly cooked to frozen meals for patients at FGH and the transferral of some urology services to Kendal.
And UHMBT bosses were challenged over the trust’s spending on locum staff and higher management at a time when cost cutting has been cited as the reason for some of the tough decisions facing health chiefs.
Dr Jolliffe was quick to add reassurance to those present when one member of staff on the FGH oncology ward expressed fears over rumours it was to close and deal only with outpatients.
With cancer possibly the greatest challenge facing the area, Dr Jolliffe said, he would like to see Furness become a centre of excellence for treatment.
FGH staff received several comments of praise throughout the meeting, members of the public citing their own excellent experiences in the hospital.
Bringing the evening to a close, meeting chairwoman and Thousand Voices organiser, Mandy Telford, thanked the panel again for attending and sharing honest answers with the room.
She said: “I’m an optimist and I like to think people will listen, but maybe people will only listen if we shout loud enough.”
 

First published at 20:40, Thursday, 07 March 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk