The Hospitals in Liverpool, and just in Liverpool, under pressure from the ICB, intend to set up a further layer of “governance” to manage finances and drive some greater cooperation. This committee is called the Adult Acute and Specialist Hospitals Joint Committee. The ICB controls all the finances for hospitals across Cheshire and Merseyside.

We like the cooperation idea, but not the idea of both the specialist hospitals and the Women’s Hospital being in unequal competition with the main hospital services for priorities and funding. Liverpool Women’s Hospital already has an imposed shared CEO, Chair, and other officials with Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust (the Royal, Broadgreen and Aintree), all men, people with no published expertise in women’s health or maternity.

These proposals mean that Liverpool Women’s will have a completely shared board with the Royal, Aintree and Broadgreen Hospitals, and have their decisions further scrutinised by this additional board which will also cover the specialist hospitals in Liverpool. These hospitals are.

• Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH),
• The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (CCC), and
• The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust (TWC).

How will women and babies fare in this further layer of bureaucracy? How does this fit in the spirit of the Ockendon report? How will the specialist hospital services fare?

These hospitals serve a wide area, not just Liverpool.

We were promised consultation on any future plans. Those promises are being broken.

The waste in the NHS is in privatisation and the failed “business” model. The original NHS model, the Bevan model is much more cost effective. The big acute hospitals need better funding and staffing as do the specialist hospitals, though it is not just funding that is needed. We want the NHS restored and repaired.

The evidence is clear. We need more midwives and a better maternity service. Patients need access to GPs, an end to huge waiting lists, access to well-functioning Accident and Emergency care and better cancer treatment. We need to be able to get a dentist’s appointment without our bank or credit cards creaking. There are millions of people on waiting lists. GP services are in disarray and GPs are taking protest action. Mental health services are severely damaged. In Cheshire and Merseyside, 75% of young people asking for help with their mental health get nothing. NHS staff need better pay and much better working conditions.

We need all our children to be well fed, for the good of their health and well-being now, and to prevent chronic illnesses in later life. The UK is the worst country for increasing child poverty. Far too many of us in Liverpool are poor or hard up. This can make us forget that we live in a rich country, one that can afford good public services. For decades Liverpool people fought for health care till we won the NHS. We want a return to the original NHS model where hospitals are not competing but cooperating and pursuing their specialisms. We must insist this new Government funds the NHS and restore it to the original Bevan model that less than ten years ago made it the best health service in the world. Funding healthcare is a great investment for a government to make. It is good for people’s health and for the economy.

Speak up for the NHS.

• Talk to your neighbours and family about the NHS.
• Join our campaign. Sign the petition if you have not already signed.
• Make the NHS the talk of your workplace.
• Email your councillors and MPs
• Put a poster up.
• Join our rally outside the Labour Party Conference on September 22^nd, 2024, by the Arch by the Albert Dock

We go into these issues in much more detail in our next post.