WEST WORCESTERSHIRE MP Harriett Baldwin has called on local people to speak up over a plan released by the Worcestershire Health and Care Trust which will seek to make our local health service sustainable in the face of rising demand and an ageing population.
The Sustainability and Transformation Plan has been commissioned by NHS England to try and find ways in which the resources across Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s health service can best be used. The draft plan suggests that it will make less use of the county’s community beds.
Harriett represents three community hospitals in her constituency in Malvern, Tenbury and Pershore and she has written to the Trust asking for data on bed occupancy rates in them.
The MP has also discussed the draft plan with the Trust’s Sarah Dugan who has urged local people to make sure they take part in the consultation process.
Harriett commented: “Local and national health budgets are rising, but so is demand. Our community hospitals deliver important local services such as operating minor injuries units, offering x-ray and scan facilities and allowing procedures to be carried out closer to people’s homes.
“Malvern’s hospital is only a few years old, Pershore is relatively new and Tenbury’s hospital has had some new wards added. I favour more use of these community assets closer to home at a time when pressure on the Acute hospital is showing no sign of abating.
“I have always said that we should make more, not less, of these resources, including encouraging Acute Trust consultants to visit their community hospitals and carry out treatment there.
“It is now vital that local people have their say and make sure they feed into the consultation exercise. We need to show just how highly-valued community hospitals like Malvern, Tenbury and Pershore really are to local people.”