News story

14th June 2005

MP Finds New Hope For Frenchay

Campaigners to save Frenchay Hospital have been given new hope following an initiative by Northavon MP Steve Webb. The MP has held a meeting at Westminster with a little known government body which has the power to overturn the decision by local health chiefs to downgrade Frenchay to a "community hospital" with less than fifty beds. The MP is now writing to South Gloucestershire councillors to urge them to play their part in getting the Frenchay decision reviewed.

The organisation which has the power to review contested decisions about local health services is called the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. Last week Steve Webb met the Panel's Chief Executive at Westminster to discuss the Bristol Health Services Plan and how it could be challenged. The MP was told that the Panel, which only came into being a couple of years ago, exists to advise the Secretary of State for Health on cases where major changes to local health services have been the subject of local dispute.

A referral has to be triggered by a request from those local councillors who have a particular responsibility for overseeing health service changes. Where the Secretary of State agrees to such a referral, the Panel will make local visits and talk to patients, MPs and councillors, NHS staff and managers and any other groups with an interest and will report back to the Secretary of State, usually within about 3 months. They have the power to recommend sweeping changes to any local health plans, including overturning decisions that have already been made.

Speaking after the meeting, Steve Webb said:

"This is the first glimmer of hope for Frenchay in many months. This Panel exists precisely to look into the sort of controversial health proposals that we are seeing in South Gloucestershire and Bristol. They are independent of the local health service managers, and this could be the first time that there will have been genuinely independent consultation with local people. I will now be urging councillors to contact the Secretary of State to register their concern, and I will then press her to agree to a referral to this Panel."

Steve Webb said that he had been in close contact with the grass roots "Save Frenchay" campaign who had warmly welcomed this development.


Notes to editors:

a) The Secretary of State for Health can only be asked to make a referral to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel by a "health overview and scrutiny committee" of a local authority. The South Glos. overview and scrutiny committee is due to meet on 6th July, and Steve Webb will ask them to resolve at that meeting to write to the Secretary of State as a matter of urgency in order to get the Frenchay decision reviewed.

b) More details about the Independent Reconfiguration Panel can be found on their website at: www.irpanel.org.uk