Health chiefs to be called to Barrow
Last updated at 16:20, Thursday, 21 March 2013
HEALTH bosses are to be summoned to Barrow after councillors united to express concerns over Furness General Hospital.
Barrow Borough Council met on Tuesday evening and recent developments at FGH were top of the agenda.
Councillors voted to ask Rebecca Wagstaff, acting director of public health for Cumbria, to meet councillors and officers to review financial pressures at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust – and note the public concern about uncertainty over the special care baby and oncology units.
Jackie Daniel, hospital trust chief executive, is also being invited to meet councillors.
When calling for the chief executive to meet councillors, Councillor Ray Guselli said everyone appreciated the work of hospital staff, but people had become distressed by recent developments.
Council leader Councillor Dave Pidduck said the recent public meeting on the maternity unit had been a wake-up call, and brought to light many issues at the hospital.
He said: “We are not going to let them (UHMBT) take away things that are desperately needed in the area, and we will be fighting them tooth and nail.”
Councillor Brendan Sweeney forwarded the motion to ask Dr Wagstaff for a meeting.
He also called for concerns to be made known to the trust and a letter to be written to health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Councillor Ernie Wilson spoke emotionally about the care his brother-in-law, who was treated and died on the unit, received.
He said: “They (staff and nurses) explained to me the reason they are there is because they love what they are doing – they want to work in this dedicated unit.”
Meanwhile, in a response to the FGH Cancer Care Campaign group, Ms Daniel is arranging a meeting between campaigners and FGH clinicians and the director leading on oncology.
In a letter responding to concerns from MP John Woodcock, Ms Daniel said the plans for oncology and haematology were “not large scale service changes”.
She added: “It is not a closure of a service, but merely the trust becoming more efficient and improving patient safety and access to medical intervention.”
First published at 16:11, Thursday, 21 March 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Have your say
I am fed up with people knocking FGH and threatening it's integrity. I was, recently admitted for a gallbladder operation and the care from the staff I found to be excellent.
The hospital is not for discussion. It should be made a flagship for the Bay's Health Trust and the Westmorland General kicked out. SINCE when was Kendal part of the Bay?
God bless the overworked staff of FGH
Posted by Bill Dickinson on 21 March 2013 at 19:58