Agenda item

A report on Huntingdonshire District Council’s response to the proposed merger of the Trusts running Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals is to be presented to the Panel.

With the aid of a report by the Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) a report outlining Huntingdonshire District Council’s response to the Hinchingbrooke and Peterborough Hospitals merger proposal was presented to the Panel.

In regards to the £9m savings that both hospitals are expected to make, Members were informed that approximately £4m would be saved at Hinchingbrooke and £5m would be saved at Peterborough.

The Panel recognised that it was important for the Trust Board to review all the options and that Members had to let the process take its course. There was frustration expressed as Mr McCarthy is one of a number of Chief Executives over the course of 10 years and that he failed to provide information of any substance to the Panel.

There was a suggestion that as the full business case was not going to be fully developed until September 2016, the Panel should not submit a response before then, however Members were reminded that the response represents the current observations of the Council in respect to the process the Trust Boards have adopted for the development of the full business case. If the response was not sent until September then it would be rendered irrelevant.

In response to the questions regarding the effect of the letter and could the Trust Boards carry on with their plans, Members were informed that the letter would inform the Trust Boards whilst they are developing the full business case. If the full business case highlighted that merger was the best option then the Trust Boards would implement the option which was best for them.

A minority of Members were concerned that the letter had already been published and questioned why. The Panel was informed that at its special meeting on 28th June 2016, Members agreed that a response would be drafted for the Panel to review at its meeting in July 2016. In addition there is no provision, under section 12a of the Local Government Act 1972, to exempt the letter from publication. Members were reminded that as the letter is a draft, it is not the final version that could be sent as the Council’s response.

A couple of Members expressed that they were pleased with the content of the draft letter as it flagged up the concerns expressed by the Panel at the special meeting held on 28th June 2016 and that they would be pleased to see the letter sent to the Chairman of the Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust.

The Panel discussed the sentence ‘welcome the strong action being taken to explore options and the clear commitment to continuity of ongoing provision of healthcare services at Hinchingbrooke’. Members thought that this sentence should be deleted as they thought it misrepresented their views and could be interpreted as support for the proposed merger.

Members agreed to recommend to Cabinet that the letter at Appendix A should be sent subject to the following amendments:

1)  that the sentence ‘welcome the strong action being taken to explore options and the clear commitment to continuity of ongoing provision of healthcare services at Hinchingbrooke’ be deleted.

2)  that the word ‘faithfully’ be deleted and replaced with ‘sincerely’.

3)  that the letter is sent out by the Executive Leader as a Council response therefore Councillor T Alban’s details are deleted and replace with those of the Executive Leader.

The Panel

RESOLVED

  to recommend that Cabinet considers the letter at Appendix A   and endorse this as the Council’s current observations to the   proposed merger.

(At 9.08pm, during the consideration of this item, Councillor Mrs P A Jordan left the meeting.)