Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

Most of my constituents and, I am sure, many of my hon. Friend’s, would find it deplorable if Stafford hospital did not have a consultant-led maternity unit. The pressure that that will place on so many hospitals—Walsall, Manor, New Cross, Queen’s or the University hospital of North Staffordshire—will be unsustainable. I urge Ministers to look at the issue again.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I am most grateful to my hon. Friend. I will come to that important point.

I pay tribute to the work of Support Stafford Hospital, because the impact of its campaign has shown just how much the community values the services at Stafford and Cannock. I also pay tribute to the working group, which I set up, and all those who have worked with me on that to provide us with the detail on alternative proposals, some of which I shall outline.

There is no doubt that the administrators listened carefully to what was said in the consultation and made a number of changes in their final proposals. However, the proposals as they stand are insufficient. What I am setting out requires not a re-doing of all the work of the trust special administrator—given what I have said about the urgency of the situation, that would not be sensible—but a modification of the detail.

I do not believe that such a modification would necessarily require more money than is currently proposed, although that remains to be seen, but it would be of huge benefit to many thousands of my constituents, and those of hon. Friends and other hon. Members. It will also ensure that both Monitor and the Secretary of State can fully comply with their legal obligations under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, in respect of health inequalities, as I will show later.

My proposal is that rather than cutting three areas of service in Stafford, those continue in a more cost-effective form, at least for two or three years. I, and the clinicians at Mid Staffs, consider that it will be quite possible to show how these services can be run across the two sites in Stoke and Stafford on a networked basis. The areas concerned are paediatrics, obstetrics and maternity and critical care.

First, the report proposes a reduction of the critical care unit to four beds. It says that the possibility of the highest level of critical care—level 3—should be maintained, but it is not clear how this will be possible without a rota for specialists in critical care. The critical care department at Stafford made its own submission to the consultation, which suggested a reduction in beds and a networked specialist rota. That seemed eminently sensible. Given that the CCU at Stafford is a net contributor and supports several other activities, I urge Monitor and the Secretary of State to determine that this model is tried for a period, during which it will, hopefully, be proven to operate well, clinically, operationally and financially.

The TSA’s final report also proposes, as my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Gavin Williamson) mentioned, removing the consultant-led obstetrics and maternity service and replacing it with a midwife-led unit dealing with approximately 350 to 400 births a year. That is a step forward from the draft report, which proposed no childbirth at all at Stafford. However, my constituents and I do not believe that it is sufficient.

Currently, Stafford sees more than 2,000 births a year and that is likely to rise, with extensive house building, various new business parks being built and the doubling of the size of MOD Stafford, to mention but some developments, resulting, in the coming years—even with a MLU—probably in some 2,000-plus babies being born in other maternity units, mainly at Stoke and Wolverhampton. UHNS in Stoke already sees some 6,000 a year and its population is also growing. With at least 1,000 births, and probably more from Stafford, UHNS will probably approach 8,000, which is the number currently born at the largest unit in the country, in Liverpool.

The NHS rightly promotes choice for women about where to have their babies and the Prime Minister has spoken out against the trend towards ever larger units. Yet that is precisely what is being proposed here for women who are unable to use a MLU, due to the possibility of complications in childbirth. There would also be an impact on those who currently use UHNS and the Royal Wolverhampton, as their local units will become even busier—probably including Walsall as well—taking in women from a much wider area.

My proposal, and that of clinicians at Stafford, is to continue with the current service, fully networked with UHNS, while the impact of the current rise in both the population and birth rate is assessed. That would also enable the special care baby unit at Stafford to continue to support the regional intensive care network for babies, as it currently does. An added benefit would be that women will continue to have a local obstetric and gynaecology service, which I am sure the Minister will appreciate as he comes from that specialty. Again, that would relieve pressure on the larger University hospital of North Staffordshire and the Royal Wolverhampton hospital.

Thirdly, the TSAs propose to reduce the paediatric assessment unit to 14 hours a day from 24 hours a day and to do away with in-patient paediatric beds. There will be no paediatric rota, although A and E doctors will receive extra paediatric training and paediatric out-patient services will continue. The principal reason given by the TSAs is the national standards of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which state that such services should be provided by a full consultant rota, which is usually between eight and 10 consultants, whereas at Stafford it is between five and six.

Let me be clear about the consequences: if the proposal is allowed to happen, the clear logic is that dozens of other paediatric units across the country that have similar numbers of consultants, or indeed fewer consultants, must be closed or have their activities drastically curtailed. Monitor cannot use the argument that that must happen at Stafford but not at other foundation or NHS trusts for which Monitor or the NHS Trust Development Authority are responsible, and neither can the Government.

The argument that all in-patient paediatric care should take place in the largest hospitals is not accepted by the general public. They fully understand why very sick children should go to specialist units; they do not understand why their local general hospital cannot receive sick children at night or for short stays, and neither do I. If experts at the Royal College insist on making that argument, however, let it be open, let it be consistent across the land and let it be agreed by all political parties. The proposal should not be implemented by stealth through a trust special administration that in no way arose because of the performance of the paediatrics department at Stafford.

I have one final point.