The following open letter has been sent to Jeremy Hunt in response to the stripping of Maternity and Paediatric services at Stafford Hospital
An open letter from the #OccupySSH protest camp at Stafford Hospital
For The Attention of the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health
Dear Mr Hunt,
Following on from the announcement that both maternity and paediatric services at Stafford Hospital are to be transferred in the early part of 2015, a move which we think is being made in great haste, we feel it is time for you to visit the people of Stafford.
At your recent meeting with Jeremy Lefroy MP on Monday 4 th August, it was agreed that no services would be moved without a ‘double lock’ system. This meant that no services were to be transferred without management from both Hospitals agreeing that capacity was ready and that an independent body would also review the movements before implementation. This has not happened.
The Trust Special Administrators projected a timescale of 2/3 years for the safe transition of services; this transition was approved and signed by you personally. Why therefore is our obstetric led maternity unit being removed on January 16 th 2015 and our in-patient paediatric unit being transferred in March 2015?
Please also note that both maternity and paediatrics have full staffing levels, neither of these departments had any issues during the ‘dark times’ at Stafford Hospital, so why are these departments and the staff that work in them being treated like this? Robert Francis said Stafford people should not suffer like this ever again and that Stafford Hospital should be a beacon of health care.
We demand that you intervene personally to stop this rushed and flawed process. The mantra is ‘patient safety is paramount’. University Hospital North Staffordshire simply does not have capacity in place, this fact has been proven by their figures of only getting 65% of people through their Accident & Emergency department within 4 hours during the month of July.
At the time of writing we have been camping outside Stafford Hospital for 42 days. We invite you with urgency to meet with us regarding our concerns.
Yours sincerely
The Stafford Hospital Protest Camp
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