That’s only part of the story.

At the staff meetings held at Worthing and Southlands sites yesterday (urgently called due to the fact that the BBC had obtained details of the consultation and were about to broadcast!) the local plans under the banner of I.H.S. (Improving Hospital Services) were also outlined as well as the general details of the Settings of Care / FFTF.

Over the next six months it is planned that most of the clinical services currently based at Southlands are to be moved to Worthing Hospital. £8M has been / will be supplied by the DoH to facilitate the move. The Trust board have indicated that this expenditure will be recovered over a period of two year due to the efficiencies of having more services delivered from one site. Another element of the saving is also supposed to come from the PCT being better able to manage demand – How this is supposed to work I am not quite sure – perhaps the DoH have provided new guidelines as to what it is to be classified as ill.

There is a view that this is an attempt at a pre-emptive strike to get WaSH ahead in the race to be the Major District Hospital for West Sussex. Remember one of the criteria for being designated as such is achieving financial balance.

The practical upshot of I.H.S will be the closure of 50 beds and the loss (by whatever means) of about 140 jobs.

It seems pretty obvious that the PCT are playing a game of divide and rule. The CEO’s will start by trying to point up the benefits of their own organisation being designated the County ‘s major hospital – but by doing that it is implicit that you are denigrating the opposition and we will probably end up fighting like ferrets in a sack.

G