WEST Sussex County Council has announced it will bid to take over the functions of the primary care trust, after the PCT board confirmed the decision to downgrade Chichester hospital last week. And local MP Andrew Tyrie has called for a final decision on the major general hospital's location to be referred to Government health secretary Alan Johnson. More than 50 campaigners made the journey to Gatwick to protest at a meeting of the PCT. Some spoke at the meeting, along with supporters MP Andrew Tyrie and the leader of Chichester District Council, Myles Cullen. Mr Tyrie slammed the meeting as a charade when he spoke to the audience and the board, stating the decision had already been made before the meeting He said: "Have I just witnessed a charade? Is it correct to say there was a pre- meeting at 9am, at which this decision was taken?" He added: "This change is not wanted anywhere in West Sussex. This is a huge poke in the eye for the opinions of thousands of people up and down the county who use the services." Despite making their case to the board, the decision taken last Wednesday means Worthing will be the major general hospital for the county. It will provide emergency surgery, inpatient services for children and house the only consultant-led maternity unit in West Sussex. But the county council met on Friday (June 6) and voted by an overwhelming majority to support a motion which said local NHS services should be accountable to the people they serve. The motion, proposed by Liberal Democrat Derek Deedman and supported by Conservatives, said: "This council is encouraged by the Government's recently announced proposals to give people the chance to have a greater say in the way their local health services are delivered, to help improve services to patients, and make the local NHS more accountable to the people they serve. The council regrets that these provisions were not in place before the 'Fit for the Future' exercise, which might have avoided a great deal of public anxiety. "This council considers that this would be best achieved in West Sussex by taking on the functions of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) with those of the county council, to bring them under local democratic control and to improve working between health and social care functions, providing health funding is also appropriately reformed." In addition, the council's Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, formed of representatives from the county council and the neighbouring authorities affected by the Fit for the Future proposals, will be assessing the PCT's decisions at its next meeting on Wednesday, June 25. If the committee does not agree with the decisions and how they were made, it can refer them to the Secretary of State for Health. If the PCT decision stands, St Richard's Hospital in Chichester and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath both retain some form of A&E services, but will become local general hospitals. There will be two midwife led maternity units for the south of the county, one at St Richard's Hospital and the other co-located with the consultant unit at Worthing. A decision on the location of the stand alone midwife led unit in the north of the county is due to be taken later this year. Mr Deedman said the council was encouraged to take this action by the Government's recently announced proposals to give people the chance to have a greater say in the way local health services are delivered, to help improve services to patients, and to make the local NHS more accountable to the people they serve. Mr Deedman said: "The Local Government Association, Conservative and Liberal Democrat policies support greater local democratic control of local health services, and we should take up that challenge as to how that can be achieved, now. "Direct county council responsibility for local health services would enable the democratic deficit to be addressed, and would lead to improved working between health and social care. If it had already been in place this would have enabled the appalling original 'Fit for the Future' proposal to be avoided. Even now it has only partially been addressed at a high cost, to the county council budget, to MPs and in stress to the public." West Sussex County Council leader Henry Smith said: "As a county council we have stressed from the start of the Fit for the Future process that we did not want to see a reduction in services anywhere in the county, to any of our residents. "Nor do we want to see residents having to travel outside of the county more frequently to get hospital services which they would have received in West Sussex before, but I am sad to say the end result appears to have failed on both counts. "We are especially concerned that there will be only one consultant-led maternity unit in the county, which will give a very difficult choice for expectant mums in West Sussex who may now be forced to have their children outside the county. "We call on the PCT to give a public commitment that no changes are to take place at any hospital until arrangements are in place for the safe transition of all services."
