On the 9^th and 10^th of October, there were two developments about Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

• The Integrated Care Board, the funding and organising body for Cheshire and Merseyside NHS,  agreed to start the process that can lead to the closure of Liverpool Women’s Hospital. We think this will damage care for women and babies. We have had enough of hospital closures and shortages of hospital beds.
• The final meeting of the Liverpool Women’s Hospital Board was held. In future, the decisions about LWH will be made at a joint meeting of the board of Liverpool Women’s Hospital Trust and the board of Liverpool Universities Hospital Trust. Behind this is the appalling state of finances for maternity care nationally, especially for Liverpool Women’s Hospital, the largest Maternity provider in the country.

While these changes are being debated, the Women’s Hospital stays on the Crown Street site and continues functioning.

You have a right to say “No.” Never forget that right to say NO!

The NHS must listen to the people. We need your voice. These proposals do not discuss finances, nor do they discuss where our babies will be born in future or what will happen to the current Liverpool Women’s Hospital site on Crown Street. They just legally clear the way to close Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Liverpool Women’s Hospital is where most of Liverpool’s babies are born. It is the largest centre for Cheshire and Merseyside for gynaecology and women’s health. It also provides other services in a good building on a pleasant green site. Liverpool Women’s Hospital has far less traffic around it than does the new Royal. One of the reasons given for closing Liverpool Women’s is that other hospitals don’t provide safely for women who happen to be pregnant. Those hospitals should be improved, not used as an excuse for closing Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

NHS England wants all hospitals in the envelope of the ICB system rather than having specialist hospitals with favourable specialist funding given nationally. This affects The Heart and Chest Hospital at Broadgreen, the Walton Centre and the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. This follows the US Accountable Care Model.”Accountable care organizations (ACOs) were created to promote health care value by improving health outcomes while curbing healthcare expenditures” They were designed for healthcare provided by private for-profit corporations, not for a public service system like the NHS.

Within Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, there are “Places” These places are the groups of NHS services within each local government area. Liverpool Place is responsible for all these hospital reconfigurations even though each hospital serves an area wider than Liverpool.

According to many different reports and our own experiences, we have a Maternity crisis and a crisis in women’s healthcare. NHS problems, though extreme for women, are not exclusive to Maternity and women’s health care but extend to A&E, the GPs, dentistry, mental health, the considerable waiting lists for treatment and much more.

We are holding a workshop at 7pm on Monday 14^th October at the Quaker Meeting House School Lane Liverpool behind Primark in the city centre. It will also be available via Zoom. Please register here. You do not need to be an expert to come to this workshop; you just need to be a human who cares about safe healthcare as public service or is interested in the issues.

The ICB is in financial difficulty caused by underfunding and by money sucked out through privatisation. Below is the ‘heat map’ of risks facing the Cheshire and Merseyside ICBs. Black 20 is the highest risk level. This is from the ICB public papers for the September meeting.

Maternity and women’s health have been underfunded and under-staffed for the whole time the Conservatives were in office. This must change. We did kick that government out. Remember?

We need improvements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the other hospitals in  Merseyside and Cheshire. We need funding for the winter crisis. The prospects for the winter crisis look bleak. The ICB should be spending money on the winter crisis and improving our services, not closing services.

The ICB will hold public engagement meetings in the next six weeks about the ICB’s plans to close Liverpool Women’s Hospital. As we write this, we have no idea where or when the meeting will be held. Please do go to these meetings if you can. Do not be afraid to say NO!

The whole NHS is in crisis. The general election has not (yet!?)solved this situation for the NHS. It is still underfunded and still being restructured toward final privatisation.

The winter crisis is set to be worse than last year’s estimated 300 excess deaths per week. People will have more pain and more time being unwell. More people who would not otherwise die will do so unnecessarily. Yet all of Liverpool, Merseyside and most of Cheshire voted Labour. Tell your MP to solve this situation to stop the damage to the NHS. They have the power to do so if they have the political will.

There is a significant difference between the management of the NHS nationally and at the Integrated Care Board level and the work of NHS staff who treat us as patients. We can disagree with NHS bosses and national, regional, and ICB managers without disrespecting the NHS workforce, doctors, midwives, nurses and all the other roles in the NHS who do great work under challenging conditions.

 Do not wait until the winter or Maternity crises hit your loved ones.

Join us in the campaign to Restore and Repair the NHS.

What you can do

1. Talk to your friends, family and workmates about the NHS. Every powerful campaign starts with talk.
2. Remind people that health care strengthens an economy and makes people healthier and happier. No economy can be strong with millions unable to work while they wait for treatment. We must afford good health care for all our mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, lovers and all the babies. Each person is born just once. We have to make birth as safe as humanly possible, which is safer than the UK currently manages. The UK are 18^th in the safety ranks. Once we were up at the top.
3. Go to the so-called public engagement meeting the NHS is organising to sweet talk you into agreeing with their cuts and tell them what you think; don’t just be disgusted; tell them so!
4. Raise the state of the NHS with your union. This can be powerful.
5. Email your MP or get an appointment to see them.
6. Talk to your councillor. They have a role in this through the Place Partnership board.
7.  Sign our petition.
8. Help our campaign! Help distribute leaflets, posters, banners, and social media posts.
9.  Help fund our campaign.
10. Share our social media.