Keep Wythenshawe Special

08/01/2016

MP to write to Jeremy Hunt over future of Wythenshawe Hospital after court ruling on 'downgrade'

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/health/wythenshawe-hospital-mike-kane-mp-10699231 =ios_MENNewsApp_AppShare_Click_Email

Mike Kane will seek assurances from the health secretary that 'world class services' will not be put at risk after doctors lost a court battle over Healthier Together shake-up plans

08/01/2016

"What you said about the court ruling over 'downgrade' of Wythenshawe Hospital" Manchester Evening News 7th January 2016

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/wythenshawe-hospital-court-ruling-reaction-10702961 =ios_MENNewsApp_AppShare_Click_Email

We have been inundated with responses to the decision, virtually all of them expressing disappointment and outrage

08/01/2016

We are grateful to the Judge for considering our case and listening to our concerns, but we are naturally disappointed by his ruling as we sincerely believe in the campaign we have mounted over the last few months to Keep Wythenshawe Special.

We want to reiterate that patient safety and benefit for the people who need our hospital was our ONLY reason for mounting this campaign, which we self-funded and has not, as some would have people believe, been paid for out of NHS money.

http://www.keepwythspecial.co.uk/the-story-so-far/press-release/

New page

02/12/2015

Have your say at the recently announced Healthier Together Public Events. http://www.keepwythspecial.co.uk/healthier-together/public-events/

The Healthier Together team have organised five public meetings, to enable the affected populations in High Peak, Stockport, South Manchester and Eastern Cheshire to understand the judicial review process and to ask any questions they may have about the programme.

Have your say. Beware of misinformation and misleading facts!

Visit our website for some questions to ask:

http://www.keepwythspecial.co.uk/healthier-together/public-events/

Was £12million of the NHS budget well spent on this process?

Poynton: Wednesday 2nd December 2015. 12pm – 2pm
Council Chamber
Poynton Civic Centre
Off Park Lane
Poynton
SK12 1RB

Stockport: Wednesday 2nd December 2015. 5pm - 6.30pm
Stockport College
Peter Barkworth Theatre
Wellington Road South
SK1 3UQ

Buxton: Thursday 3rd December 2015. 6pm – 7.30pm
Garden Marquee
Pavilion Gardens
St John’s Road
Buxton
SK17 6BE

Wythenshawe: Friday 4th December 2015. 9.30am -11am
Wythenshawe Forum
Forum Centre
Forum Square
Wythenshawe
Manchester
M22 5RX

New Mills: Monday 7th December 2015. 6pm – 7.30pm
New Mills Town Hall
High Peak
Derbyshire
SK22 4AT

12/11/2015

Great Article from The Guardian on Wed 11th November:

"The King’s Fund health thinktank has voiced worries about plans to devolve NHS budgets."

“A key concern is whether the NHS can cope [with devolution] at the same time as it attempts to tackle some of the pressing challenges it currently faces."

"The most worrying of the King’s Fund’s question marks is over who has ultimate responsibility if something major goes wrong."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/11/devolving-health-social-care-manchester-nhs

As Manchester prepares to take over an integrated health and social care budget, a new report questions the speed of change and whether the NHS can cope

07/11/2015

Thankyou to everyone who joined our march and rally today. We are grateful to our local MPs, Mike Kane, Kate Green and Graham Brady for their strong support. Medics, Andrew MacDonald and Julian Barker made it very clear why Wythenshawe hospital is a special hospital and why the decision by Healthier Together to downgrade many of its world class services is wrong. Ted Robbins rounded an amazing rally with a heart felt and emotional speech in support of Wythenshawe Hospital.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/wythenshawe-hospital-downgrade-rally-draws-10405494

Medics who launched legal action against NHS decision join march across the town

01/11/2015

Please show your support by joining us on our rally and march on Saturday 7th November for our "Keep Wythenshawe Special" campaign. We must not allow the proposed downgrade of Wythenshawe Hospital to happen. Joining many senior doctors and hospital staff on this rally will be local MPs, Mike Kane, Graham Brady and Kate Green as well as local councillors. We will also be joined by the celebrity comedian Ted Robbins. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.keepwythspecial.co.uk/

01/11/2015

Who was responsible and accountable for how this £12 million of tax payers money was spent. Was it in the best interest of Greater Manchester or was it for the City of Manchester alone! Was this process really transparent and open?

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/health/shake-up-nhs-services-greater-10341665

Health bosses have spent the cash on legal advice, financial and data analysis, public consultation and PR since April 2013, the M.E.N. can reveal

15/10/2015

"Mr Brady said the Wythenshawe hospital Healthier Together legal challenge, which had been handled in a ‘deeply regrettable fashion’, highlighted a ‘lack of accountability’ in the region’s health infrastructure.."

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/manchester-devolution

Chancellor George Osborne confirmed in November 2014 that Greater Manchester is to get its own directly-elected mayor - with the region getting £1bn-worth of powers over transport, housing, planning and policing in return.

15/10/2015

Its been said that "Healthier together" is a CITY OF MANCHESTER ambition and NOT for GREATER MANCHESTER.

So ask yourself the question: Will implementing the decision of "Healthier Together" (HT) be best for Greater Manchester or just for the city of Manchester? The HT decision has focussed most of its resources for managing very sick patients into the city of Manchester. This is likely to be at the expense of the rest of Greater Manchester. HT wants to put together the 2 largest teaching hospitals in Manchester to work within a single service. How can that be for the benefit of Greater Manchester?! Many of the services that are required to support high risk emergency surgery are in these 2 hospitals and NOT in the other hospitals of Greater Manchester and certainly not in Stockport/ Tameside?! So what's left for Greater Manchester?? HT claims its plans are to raise standards of healthcare for all in Greater Manchester. Yet do we really believe that high risk surgical patients going into the combined service of Stepping Hill and Tameside will get the same level of care as the proposed POWERHOUSE sector - i.e. the combined service between Manchester Royal Infirmary & Wythenshawe Hospital. Where would you prefer to go if you had a "choice"? However, even the POWERHOUSE sector (MRI and Wythenshawe hospital) is not necessarily a clear winner when you look harder into the details. Being a "big" hospital trust in the NHS does not necessarily equate to being good. In fact the evidence would suggest the opposite. The biggest trust in UK is currently under special measures for serious safety concerns! The proposed POWERHOUSE sector would be even bigger!

So what will we really achieve if a flawed process created 4 highly unequal services in Greater Manchester to manage the sickest of our patients? The answer will be chaos and more money wasted. And chaos in the NHS is deadly!

Tax payers have already paid a lot of money to Greater Manchester to run the Healthier Together process. We will need answers to what went wrong and why when the legal challenge uncovers that it was so flawed.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/northern-powerhouse-mayor-must-not-10258307

Safeguards must be put in place to scrutinise new leaser, he says

13/10/2015

BBC News:

'Wythenshawe Hospital doctors launch legal bid over 'super hospital'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34504405

Doctors at a Manchester hospital launch a legal bid over a decision not to make it a specialist centre for emergency surgery.

12/10/2015

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/health/wythenshawe-doctors-officially-launch-legal-10244761

A group of consultants - backed by hundreds of medical staff - have filed judicial review papers against plans to move surgery out of the hospital