Heatherwood Under Threat (Windsor Liberal Democrats)

Windsor Liberal Democrats <info@windsorlibdems.org.uk>

Heatherwood Under Threat

November 27, 2009 11:33 AM
Originally published by Bracknell Liberal Democrats

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust held its third annual members' meeting at Wexham Park last night. The meeting was not widely advertised and consequently not well-attended.

Presentations by the newly-appointed chief executive and chief financial officer sought to explain what the Trust was doing to improve both its financial and operational performance. Earlier plans to improve performance were rejected by Monitor, the government watchdog, which is now maintaining a close watch on the Trust and has the power to make further changes, if necessary.

In the limited time available for questions it became quite clear, following a report from the Vice Chair of Governors, that the governors had played little or no part in the running of the Trust in the past and had been largely excluded from discussions about how to deal with the current financial crisis.

Despite the assurances offered by the Chief Executive about the continued role of Heatherwood, the Trust still has no long term plan for the future and the transfer of other services to Wexham Park could clearly not be ruled out.

Wexham Park is far too remote to meet the needs of residents of Bracknell or Ascot and any attempt to further restrict the provision of services at Heatherwood must be vigorously resisted. Bracknell Forest and Windsor and Maidenhead Councils need to adopt a much stronger approach to defending the healthcare interests of their residents, especially at a time when the financial outlook for the NHS is so bleak and all the local NHS trusts are clearly engaged in a competition to improve efficiency and consolidate services.