June deadline to move hospital services 'cancelled'

Plans to move outpatient services from hospitals in Buxton will no longer go ahead this month.

Nine services, including ophthalmology, gynaecology and rheumatology, were due to move from Buxton and Cavendish hospitals to Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.

However, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has now confirmed there are no current timescales for the move.

Labour MP for High Peak, Jon Pearce, said the June deadline had been "cancelled entirely".

The move was planned because the trust said fewer people were being referred to Buxton and the "great majority" of High Peak outpatient appointments were already being seen at Stepping Hill.

The trust said it continued to hold "constructive conversations" with NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), Stockport Foundation NHS Trust and NHS England regarding outpatient service delivery to the residents of Buxton.

"The priority within these discussions is patient safety and sustainability of services," it added.

The ICB expressed "significant concerns" last autumn about the planning process and stakeholder engagement that had been carried out before the announcement.

The trust was subsequently asked to provide a detailed business case to outline the rationale for the plans, carry out impact assessments and assess the level of public involvement required ahead of any decisions being made to change service provision.

One person close to the current discussions told the BBC that concerns about "due diligence" undertaken throughout the process remain.

Another said that the transfer of services had been proposed "without proper consultation" and the trust was now having to "go back to the starting blocks".

The trust said: "It is important to remind people that any permanent change to services would require engagement with patients and other stakeholders to understand potential impacts on access and inform future service options for consideration through appropriate scrutiny processes.

"We are committed to this approach, which will inform any future decision‑making."

Pearce said he has been working to "force Stockport to reconsider".

"The June deadline has been cancelled entirely and Stockport and the ICB will now go through the full process to decide next steps," he said.

"We were able to effectively make the case that these plans could not go ahead. I still cannot believe that Stockport had planned for this to happen with no Equality and Impact Assessment ever produced.

"I welcome that there will be a full opportunity for a proper and necessary assessment to take place to properly account for health outcomes and not just financial implications. None of the proposed pauses ever allowed for this to happen and I am pleased that now the consultation can take place.

"In the meantime, I would encourage residents to keep using these vital services and getting in touch with my office if they have any other concerns."

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