Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3HT DX59900 Sittingbourne 2 Phone: 01795 424341 Fax: 01795 417141 www.swale.gov.uk
Direct dial: 01795 xxx xxx [email protected] www.swale.gov.uk
Jeremy Hunt MP Date: xx November 2013 Secretary of State for Health Contact: xyz
Dear Jeremy
Re: Closure of Faversham Minor Injuries Unit
I am writing to you regarding the recent decision of the Canterbury and Coastal Clinical Commissioning Group (known as C4G) to close the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) currently hosted at Faversham Cottage Hospital. The Cottage Hospital currently serves the town of Faversham and its surrounding villages, which have a combined population of around 28,000 that is growing.
As Leader of the Borough Council, Divisional Member for Kent County Council, and a local resident, I and all local residents that I have spoken to have grave concerns about this proposal, and I would exhort you to look into the decision as a matter of urgency.
By way of background, C4G recently undertook a procurement exercise for provision of the MIU, but this failed to result in the tender being awarded. It transpires that, although 19 expressions of interest in the tender were received following announcement of the procurement exercise, this reduced to eight following the bidder event, and in the end only one bid was actually received, which was considered by C4G to be unsuitable. I also understand that the four GP practices within Faversham are now on public record in decrying the decision that C4G have arrived at, and in particular they point to the fact that none of the Faversham GP practices were consulted on the decision of the Clinical Commissioning Group, or otherwise involved in the procurement exercise.
This all strongly suggests a flawed procurement exercise and a failure of process, and we would advocate for a new procurement exercise to be run, using a ‘competitive dialogue’ process to better understand supplier concerns, learning the lessons from the flawed first exercise. In addition, the ‘Friends of the Cottage Hospital’ group have raised a considerable sum to fund the purchase/ lease of a digital X ray unit, which should help to make provision of the service more attractive to the market in any subsequent procurement exercise.
Serving Faversham, Isle of Sheppey, Sittingbourne and surrounding rural areas
Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3HT DX59900 Sittingbourne 2 Phone: 01795 424341 Fax: 01795 417141 www.swale.gov.uk
From the perspective of service users, if there is no MIU in the Faversham area, the ‘closest’ alternatives are located in Whitstable, Canterbury, and Sittingbourne, all of which present significant transport challenges, particularly for the more vulnerable or deprived (ie without access to a car) members of my community.
In fact, individuals suffering minor injuries are much more likely to choose to attend the local acute hospital for Accident and Emergency access, which is the opposite of what I understand are your long term ambitions for the health service, involving much more care closer to home and in the community, thus relieving pressure on A&E services, which are already under great stress. It seems clear to me that, if the CCG cannot identify an innovative Faversham community-based solution, for which it has set aside funding of £285,000, the national policy of GP-led community services will be exposed.
Unsurprisingly, this is a matter which has stirred great resentment locally. A number of questions have been tabled for our forthcoming Council meeting, and Kent County Council Overview and Scrutiny will also be looking closely at the decision by C4G. And it looks certain that local meetings of both the Borough Council and the Town Council will be dominated by this issue for the foreseeable future.
I would therefore ask you to look into the matter and bring the force of your office to bear. One approach might be for you to urge that the procurement exercise will be rerun as suggested above, or at the very least that alternative provision for the MIU is made within the Faversham area.
I would be more than happy to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss the matter in more detail.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr Andrew Bowles Leader of the Council
Cc: Cllr Ken Pugh, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Health Cllr David Simmons, Mayor of Faversham Town Council, and Chair of the Friends of Faversham Cottage Hospital Group Hugh Robertson MP (Faversham and Mid-Kent) Abdool Kara, Chief Executive Amber Christou, Head of Housing and Health
Serving Faversham, Isle of Sheppey, Sittingbourne and surrounding rural areas