PERSHORE’S MP Harriett Baldwin has urged local residents to make their voices heard over a major blueprint for the future of the NHS in Worcestershire.
The Sustainability and Transformation Plan has been commissioned by NHS England to try to find ways in which the resources across Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s health service can best be used.
Health chiefs at Worcestershire Health and Care Trust hope the plan will make the local health service sustainable in the face of rising demand and an ageing population.
In particular, Mrs Baldwin hopes people will speak up in support of beds at community hospitals such as Pershore as the draft plan suggests reducing the use of the county’s community beds.
The West Worcestershire MP has voiced her opposition to the proposal and has written to the Trust asking for data on bed occupancy rates in them.
Mrs Baldwin has also discussed the draft plan with the Trust’s Sarah Dugan who has urged local people to make sure they take part in the consultation process.
“Our community hospitals deliver important local services such as operating minor injuries units, offering x-ray and scans and allowing procedures to be carried out closer to people’s homes,” she said.
“Malvern’s hospital is only a few years old, Pershore is relatively new and Tenbury’s hospital has had some new wards added.
“I favour more use of these community assets closer to home at a time when pressure on the Acute hospital is showing no sign of abating.
“I have always said that we should make more, not less, of these resources, including encouraging Acute Trust consultants to visit their community hospitals and carry out treatment there.
“It is now vital that local people have their say and make sure they feed into the consultation exercise.
“We need to show just how highly-valued community hospitals like Malvern, Tenbury and Pershore really are to local people,” she added.
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