Plans to ‘reconfigure’ local hospital services have been brought forward by health commissioners, it was revealed yesterday.
Matt Walsh, chief officer at NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group warned the council’s Health and Wellbeing Board that a 12-week consultation on the case for reconfiguration needs to begin by September before “services become unsustainable and a risk to patients and services.”
Board members raised concerns that the consultation was being brought forward too quickly and doesn’t give the CCG and opportunity to work with the council’s People’s Commission.
Dr Walsh told the meeting: “There are significant risks in the timeline, but our timeline is our timeline.”
Council leader Tim Swift said, “In one sense they seemed to say they wanted to work with the People’s Commission, but actually what they were saying is that there are pressures on them that mean they need to bring the hospital reconfiguration forward more quickly.
“The process set in the People’s Commission said they should start to make the changes to community care, but give them time to bed-in.”