An NHS board meeting was suspended for half an hour as protestors demanded answers over the future of a women’s hospital.
The group were concerned about a review of hospital services across Liverpool and how it could impact women’s healthcare and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital in the future. It has previously been proposed that the women’s hospital could be relocated.
However Graham Urwin, Chief Executive of the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, reassured them that what was being voted on was not a future decision about the hospital but the next step in the process to look at improving healthcare.
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The protestors asked the Board which looks at improving care across the region to “listen to the women, listen to the women now.” They said there had not been any consultation.
Dr Rebecca Smith, a retired midwifery doctor and protestor, was concerned about the integration of services and women-specific healthcare.
She said: “To me, there is no good evidence or clinical argument that the women’s hospital is not safe. When I was reading through the review, I thought, where's the women’s voice here? Where is it?”
Mr Urwin told protestors there would be “no change to these services without a proper consultation” and denied it would just be a paper exercise.
He said the board of the Women’s Hospital NHS Trust believed there were elements of the service which were not safe and would struggle to maintain patient safety in the long term – even struggling to recruit staff in some areas.
He added: “No such decisions has been made and if they were, that would be subject to a full public consultation and process.
“We are concerned about the safety and sustainability of these services but we have made no decision about what the answers should be.”
A committee group will be set up to explore future options and solutions to the current issues with independent advisors. The aim of this is “developing a future care model to ensure the best possible care for women and babies across Liverpool.”
The issues ranged from the lack of a 24 hour blood-bank at the hospital as well as women and babies requiring ambulance care to other hospitals.
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