'Decision to select Option 1 referred to Secretary of State for Health'
On January 21st, the Joint Health Scrutiny panels of four boroughs Enfield, Haringey, Barnet and Herts. expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision of the three PCTs by calling it in. The decision will now be referred to the Secretary of Sate for health. Normally he will request that the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) review the decision. All proposed changes to services at Chase Far are now on hold pending this process.
Update on Planning Application
The Planning Inspector heard the aruments for angd against building 279 residential homes on the Chase Farm site. The main thrusts of the argumnets related to: (i) 'prematurity', it would be premature to build on NHS land before the future health needs of the borough have been estabished (ii) Lack of key worker housing-although the site could provide substantial amounts of key worker and affordable housing, the Trust is only offering to build 415 of such accommodation. The majority of the homes will be 'private dwellings' to be sold on a commercial basis to clear the debts of the NHS. (iii) There were also objections relating to the size and sacle of the proposed structures. It is likely that the Planning Inspector will make a decision by the end of May 2008.
In the summer of 2006, 10 scenarios were provided by the NHS for consultation. These 10 scenarios were mysteriously reduced to five in late 2006. Those five scenarios included one which would have allowed all frontline services to be retained at Chase Farm. This was called 'scenario E'.
However when consultation commenced in July 2007, the options had been whittled down to 2 options, Scenario E had disappeared. The options were selected and articulated by the NHS behind closed doors, and left the public with what amounted to Hobson's choice. Neither of the two options provided for a fully functioning Accident and Emergency department at Chase Farm or Women's and Children's' services at the Chase Farm site.
The residents of Enfield (and Haringey) were asked to engage in a sham consultation because it did not allow them to express their views only to respond to 'closed questions' relating to the limited options pre-selected for them by NHS bureaucrats.
In spite of this, thousands of people wrote in and sent back their questionnaires rejecting both options. The consultation tells us two things:
Firstly, the consultation document was poorly designed and the process was poorly managed. Response rates were abysmally low (considering we are talking about the future health needs of a population of 900 000 or more). No academic institution would accept the low response rate as a valid 'sample' to draw conclusions from.
Secondly, the people of Enfield and surrounding boroughs will not be duped into 'selecting' options which amount to cutting our services and transferring patients with life threatening conditions to other boroughs.
Save Chase Farm will continue to fight to ensure that the views of the vast majority of users of Chase Farm hospital are not ignored.
