John Adler's Ballot Response

The following letter was sent to Ken Taylor by the Chief Executive of Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust in response to the recent ballot, which saw 95 out of 98 City consultants who voted voting against the interim reconfiguration proposals, a majority of 57% of those who could have voted. The original version is available here.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS
NHS Trust
City Hospital
Dudley Road
Birmingham
B18 7QH

Tel: 0121 554 3801

http://www.swbh.nhs.uk/

Tel: 0121 507 4847
Fax: 0121 507 5636

Dr. K.G. Taylor
‘Redstacks’
1 Priory Road
Halesowen
West Midlands B62 0BZ
11th July 2007

Dear Dr. Taylor,

Re: City Hospital Supporters Group Ballot

Thank you for your letter dated 23rd June 2007 setting out the outcome of the ballot of City Hospital based consultants organised by the City Hospital Supporters Group.

I note that your ballot did not include the substantial body of consultants based at Sandwell who are also affected by these changes. I was also disappointed that your letter to consultants took a very pessimistic view of the prospects for the new acute hospital which these plans are, in part, designed to prepare for.

As you know, the Trust has developed its proposals for change with significant clinical input over the last 18 months in order to reach a considered assessment of the best option for each of these services. This has included detailed consideration of the options with the clinicians directly involved as well as a number of opportunities for the wider clinical body to contribute. We will continue to work closely with clinicians as we develop our plans further.

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to confirm how the Trust intends to proceed. We will be continuing to ensure our clinicians are engaged in the process of developing our plans. We will in this way proceed with changes where either there is no significant argument or where there are clear operational reasons for needing to deliver the change as quickly as practical. This includes the changes to pathology (move to City), neonatal care (move to City), inpatient paediatrics (move to Sandwell) and the first stage surgical changes (inpatient urology, vascular and breast cancer will move to City). The proposals for emergency surgery and trauma are subject to the Secretary of State’s decision and we will continue to work on the detail of our plans in this area with clinicians pending the outcome of the review. This approach was agreed by the Trust Board last week.

I trust that this letter confirms the current position.

Yours sincerely,
John Adler
Chief Executive
cc: Ms. D. Lee, DOH Secretary of State Private Office
Mr. T. Shaw, IRP
Councillor D. Alden, Birmingham OSC
Ms. C. Bower, West Midlands SHA
Dr. S. Bradbrook, Heart of Birmingham PCT
Mr. R. Bacon, Sandwell PCT
Mrs. S. Davis, SWBH
Mr. R. Kirby, SWBH

Ken Taylor will be posting a response to this later today.