Agenda and minutes

1 (1)    The Committee had before them a report which set out for the Committees information the ongoing events/dialogue on the implementation of the Women’s and Children’s Services within the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

(2)       The report set out for the consideration of the Committee commentary on the stakeholder events. The reports concluded that the majority of the points of referral made by the Committee to the former Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham remained unresolved through the process the new Secretary of State Andrew Lansley CBE had set in motion when responding to the Committee on 1 July 2010.

(3)       Likewise the Committee concluded that the four additional tests on which this reconfiguration was to be adjudged:-

(a)   Support from GP commissioners;

(b)   Strengthened public and patient engagement;

(c)   Clarity on the clinical evidence base; and

(d)   Consistency with current and prospective patient choice

could not be met - in particular support from the GP commissioners and strengthened public and patient engagement.

(4)       Members of the Committee welcomed the opportunity they had been afforded to attend all the stakeholder events and noted the importance the co-design group at the Hop Farm on 22 September 2010 which they viewed as significant in terms of the preparation of the report form Mr Lansley by the Strategic Health Authority.

(5)       Tabled at the meeting was a letter the Chairman of the Committee had received from Mr N Chard the Cabinet Member for Environment Highways and Waste regarding the A228 link between Maidstone Hospital and Pembury Hospital; a letter from Julia Ross  Director of Strategy  and  Communications for NHS West Kent who had been conducting the stakeholder events on behalf of the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority requesting that the contents of her letter in which she stated that the report before the Committee was not entirely factually correct should be taken into account, and a letter the Chairman had written to Guy Boersma, Director of Commissioning and System Development who was preparing the report for Mr Lansley asking that the report before the Committee and this minute is appended to the report unaltered and an embargoed copy of the report be made available to the Chairman prior to publication  (see Appendix 1 to these Minutes).

(6) During the debate the majority of Members spoke with passion about the opportunity of retaining Women’s and Children’s Service at Maidstone Hospital as it looked unlikely that the four additional tests set  by Mr Lansley and in particular (a) support from GP commissioners would be met.

(7) One Member felt strongly that whilst it was right for the Committee to support the residents of Maidstone and the surrounding area he had some difficulty in supporting the conclusion of the Chairman's report as on two occasions in 2005 (a Joint Select Committee) and earlier this year the Task and Finish Group (and subsequently the Committee) had approved and endorsed the reconfiguration of Women’s and Children’s Services for Maidstone and Tunbridge  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.