Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what duty of care he has for residents and NHS patients in Liverpool following the Capsticks report and while the Kirkup Review is taking place before allowing local community services to be taken over by Bridgewater NHS Trust whose Care Quality Commission inspection report released on 6 February 2017 rates that Trust as requiring improvement.

The National Health Service is committed to providing high quality care and will always put the interests of patients first when decisions are made about service transfers.

Following the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s report of Bridgewater Community Healthcare Foundation Trust, NHS Improvement took the decision to pause temporarily the ongoing transaction of services from Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust to Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust. This pause was deemed appropriate as it has allowed time to seek assurance that the proposals are the best option for local patients and residents. An overall rating of ‘requires improvement’ would not, in itself, prevent a transaction taking place.