The ICB, the lead body for the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside, began a process towards significant change for Liverpool Women’s Hospital last year. It was formally announced in the autumn, and action got underway in October and November, with what they called an Engagement exercise. Their latest meeting was on January 30th. You can find all the papers we quote from the meeting here. There is also a long video.
Many people cannot understand how anyone could tamper with Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Some simply don’t believe that it is happening. We want to ensure that people can check what we post about the ICB against their own material. Quotes from their papers will be in blue.
There is no money for a significant improvement, let alone a new build, or for alteration of buildings in the existing hospitals. There is famously no room at the Royal, and given the winter crisis with trolley care at Aintree, no room there either. Any other site would be further away from the highest levels of intensive care than the current Liverpool Women’s Hospital site on Crown Street.
It is not possible to separate the fight for better Maternity care, better outcomes for babies, and better gynaecology and fertility care, from the overall privatisation, Americanisation, underfunding, understaffing and neglect of buildings in the NHS. Our campaign is part of a national fight back to Restore and Repair the NHS.
What happened at the ICB meeting in January? During the “engagement” process in the autumn, the ICB presenters of their Case for Change stressed repeatedly that they wanted women’s services colocated in an acute general hospital, but that they did not yet have a plan as to how this would happen, or where our babies would be born. They insisted the Crown Street site did not meet national regulations. We have challenged this in detail here.
The issue of the future of Liverpool Women’s Hospital is managed by the ICB’s Women’s Hospital Services in Liverpool Committee.
The Steps which are already taken towards their Case for Change.
Liverpool Women’s Hospital management was moved into a group with the Royal, Aintree, and Broadgreen, which was agreed upon at the ICB. How such a crucial change can happen without public consultation baffles us. We can find no legislation that permits this, but we will continue to look. There was legislation about the reorganisation of hospitals into Trusts. Trusts still legally exist, but they have delegated their powers over finance and staffing to the Group in Liverpool.
“Liverpool Clinical Services Review – Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust and Liverpool Women’s FT come together as University Hospitals of Liverpool Group from November 1st. This will streamline decision-making and develop further collaboration opportunities in terms of service quality, access, workforce capacity and finance. Plans for other acute and specialist trusts to join a group structure, retaining their status as separate Trusts, are in development. “
Plans for the future of Liverpool Women’s Hospital are discussed at a subcommittee held in private, and their reports then come to the meeting held in public. At January’s meeting, it was reported that;
Phase 2 Programme Plan The next stage summary programme plan – from January – December 2025 – was presented to the Committee. The plan set out the timescales and milestones for agreeing the model of care, managing the options appraisal process and developing any business cases. The Committee approved the phase 2 programme plan.
and
Women’s services in Liverpool programme case for change approved by ICB board and formal public engagement started on October 15th. In parallel work will begin on the design phase and development of a clinical model at a Clinical Reference group meeting in December 2024. A Lived Experience Panel has been established to support the programme.
The (sub-committee) considered the following at its meeting in November 2024: Programme Update. This included: • Finalising the case for change and briefing councils and MPs prior to publication. • Planning and delivering the public engagement for the case for change. • Progress on delivering clinical improvements at LWFT. • Refreshing the counterfactual case. • Planning for the clinical engagement event in December.
“design phase and development of a clinical model” This phrase presumably is when they will decide where our babies will be born and where Gyny and the NICU will be based.
The report on the engagement meetings did not reflect the experience of many people who attended them. Before writin g this we checked with a dozen people who attended. Our campaign told people about these poorly advertised meetings, and we were the majority of the (few) people who attended. The in-person meetings were held during the day when people at work could not participate. There was only one evening meeting. We objected to how notes were kept at these meetings and that there was no recording. The overall response from the public was ‘NO!’ to their case for change. The report given at the ICB meeting said:
Communications and Engagement Update
The Committee received feedback on the 6 week public engagement period which completed the day before the meeting.
The engagement process and products included face-to-face and online engagement events, a dedicated website, and a public facing version of the case for change (including an easy read version). Voluntary sector organisations were also commissioned to support the engagement with harder to reach groups and communities.
Feedback on the case for change was collected via a questionnaire (online, printed, and available in an easy-to-read format). This was also translated into 16 languages. An independent organisation, Hood and Woolf, has been commissioned to complete the analysis of the questionnaires; the Committee will receive the report of the analysis at its next meeting.
The engagement events proved to be challenging, with some individuals dominating the sessions. More resources are likely to be needed for effective engagement activities in the future to ensure all attendees can have a voice.
The plan for where the women’s services will go is not ready, and they don’t have the money for buildings or to fund significant change, but they intend to continue even in these circumstances.
Quotes about the finance for the Case for Change
“The C&M system is already financially challenged, and therefore the risk score reflects that new expenditure and investment may not be possible in the current financial climate; this is as much about the wider availability of public sector capital as the C&M situation“
and in more detail here
WSC3 – Failure to secure the required financial resources for the transformation of women’s hospital services in Liverpool, combined with revenue implications, will negatively impact on the successful delivery of proposals, currently rated as extreme (16). The C&M system is already financially challenged and therefore the risk score reflects that new expenditure and investment may not be possible in the current financial climate; this is as much about the wider availability of public sector capital as the C&M situation. A Finance and Estates Group is due to be established in January 2025 (as part of the emerging Programme governance and reporting arrangements). Further actions include baseline mapping to support the design phase and finance and estates modelling to support the options development – the latter action has a longer-term timescale of January – June 2025.
Date of next meeting: the Women’s Hospital Services in Liverpool Committee March 19th 2025
After the public meeting chaired by Kim Johnson MP on January 31st, with more people (around 100) in attendance than in the whole of the ICB “engagement” events in the autumn, we have been invited to a citizen’s assembly to be chaired by Ian Byrne MP for West Derby.
Other vital issues were discussed at the ICB meeting in January, including finance and the winter crisis. We will report on these in another blog post.
There is a lobby of parliament about the NHS. If you could go, please get in touch.
What does the Campaign to Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital want?
This is what we fight for!
Women having babies have the right to excellent antenatal care.
When giving birth, we need to keep our own agency, we need calm, and we need a good place to give birth, with well-rested, well-qualified staff available to be with us to help in a timely fashion.
Women and babies have a right to good restful care immediately after giving birth, with expert help in infant feeding and support with concerns. Mother and baby need speedy access to support in the early weeks and months in issues to do with physical and mental health.
That’s good Maternity care.
Next steps to Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital
We are planning a ‘Human Billboard’ – bring your own poster if you can -event outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on March 8th at noon. Save the date.
We are collecting your stories about your experience with Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Please do get in touch.
We will be planning other public meetings around the city, holding stalls and leafletting events. We will continue to follow the meetings both at the ICB and at the Hospital Group.
Please invite us to any meetings you might be organising in the community, in your union or political party.
We need your help, and we need the money to pay for all of this. Please donate through Paypal or send cheques to Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital Campaign c/o News from Nowhere 96 Bold Street Liverpool l1 4HY
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=SVSL9LVZYJQ32
This is link to the recoding of the public meeting chaired by Kim Johnson on 31st January
Save Liverpool Women's Hospital 