- A poster that says it all really
The following is lifted from the Sutton Borough Guardian on-line newspaper:-
A healthcare review which has cost taxpayers millions of pounds and made no significant changes to healthcare over the last three years has finally been scrapped.An announcement from the six Clinical Commissioning Groups in south west London, this morning, said they now want to develop a new five year strategy for local health services rather than continue with their Better Services Better Value (BSBV) review.
Over the last three years St Helier Hospital has been hampered by BSBV which has twice threatened to axe its A&E, maternity and children’s services.
The failed healthcare review has cost taxpayers a staggering £8.2m over three years even though none of its proposals were implemented.
A consequence of the review was revealed earlier this month when it emerged the £219m redevelopment of St Helier Hospital was unlikely to go ahead due to the uncertainty it had faced under BSBV.
A statement from BSBV said: “We do not propose to continue with our BSBV programme or to consult on the options that emerged from it, which have now been withdrawn.
“The next step will be for us to discuss our new approach with our boards and with local provider trusts and seek their support for it. We plan to announce our five-year strategy in June 2014.”
A statement from the Epsom and St Helier trust revealed they will remove the giant banner which adorns the front of the hospital stating that the £219m redevelopment is ‘coming soon’.
The chief executive of St Helier Hospital, Matthew Hopkins, said: “It has been a long road for us, which involved times of uncertainty for the future of our services, our patients and our staff. I’d like to thank our staff and volunteers who throughout this time have kept their focus on the day job and have continued to provide high quality care to our patients.
“We are absolutely committed to working with our clinical commissioning groups in further improving healthcare in the region.
“Patients should be assured that the broad range of outpatient, day case and inpatient services remain available at our two main sites.
“Just like all other NHS trusts across the country, we are developing a business plan for the future of our hospitals and services (including long-term financial modelling), which provides details of how we will continue to provide high quality care in an affordable, efficient way.”
The hospital will be working with commissioners over the coming months to develop their five year strategy.