Cannock

Community Hospital Working Group 2012

Terms of Reference
Aims of the Group

The Cannock Hospital Working Group has been established to enable all local stakeholders to work together in order to examine and consider ways in which Cannock Hospital can become fully utilised again. It is only by being fully used that local people can have confidence that the long-term future of the Hospital is secure for the local community. All options will be considered if they contribute towards making greater use of the Hospital building, not only by the NHS but other Public Service providers. Options to be explored include, but are not limited to, considering possible additional inpatient and community services to those currently provided by the NHS; County and District Council services being provided from the Hospital estate; GP surgeries being located in the Hospital; Police and Social Services making use of the building; other community organisations using it and paying rent (e.g. a nursery). Membership The group will be chaired by Aidan Burley MP and be made up of key local stakeholders and NHS experts with an interest in Cannock Hospital and who represent their organisations at a senior level. The group will be expressly non-political, comprised of representatives from all political parties, professional health workers, hospital volunteers and local people with an interest in this issue. The group will be able to invite outside experts and other representatives to attend its meetings as should be deemed appropriate to gather evidence, for example from other public service providers. Objectives To discuss and develop options for more public services to be provided from the Hospital Estate, in order that its utilisation can increase from the current 40% to 100%, and be maintained at 100%. Options for future use of the site will need to be considered in the light of: (i) The Hospitals annual deficit (predicted 8 million 2012-13) (ii) The current under-utilisation of the Hospital (iii) Monitors review into the future of Mid Staffs Trust (expected March 2013) The Working Group will also need to take into account the possibility that Monitor will recommend selling / closing Cannock Hospital in order to close the financial black hole in Mid Staffs Trust, estimated to be 15million in 2012-13. Given this possibility, the Working Group should investigate options for another organisation(s) to purchase all or part of the Hospital estate, or move into it. The Group should have an alternative plan should this proposal be made by Monitor in March 2013, with worked up and fully-costed proposals. The Group is committed to a two-site solution in which both Cannock and Stafford Hospitals remain open in the long term.

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Frequency The frequency of meetings will be agreed by the Working Group in the course of its first meeting on November 2nd 2012 to ensure evidence is regularly reviewed and plans/options updated as a result. Reporting The Group will recommend: (i) Suggested options for more NHS services to be provided from Cannock Hospital;

(ii) Which other public services could be provided from the Hospital; (iii) Which other organisation(s) could buy the Hospital Estate, if it is put up for sale; (iv) What else could be located in it; (v) How the site can become fully utilised in the near future. Note: A separate working group in Stafford is working to present Monitor and the Commissioners the evidence and case for the fullest possible range of high quality emergency, acute and elective services to be available at Stafford and Cannock Hospitals within the budgets which are determined by national tariffs for each service provided (see notes below) Background Cannock Hospital is one of two hospital sites owned and managed by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust provides healthcare to people in Stafford, Cannock, Rugeley and surrounding areas serving a local population of around 320,000. The site opened in 1991 and was called Cannock Community Hospital. The name changed in the 1990s to Cannock Chase Hospital. Cannock Chase Hospital houses a centre of excellence for musculoskeletal services including a regional rheumatology department and a dedicated day case and short stay Orthopaedic Unit. A Day Case Surgery Unit with a dedicated Endoscopy Theatre is on site. There is an acute elderly care ward, one rheumatology ward and inpatient neurology and rehabilitation services. The hospital has a Minor Injuries Unit which is open from 8am until midnight and 53 inpatient beds. Recent figures from Mid Staffs Trust suggest Cannock Hospital costs 32 million a year to run, including pay and fixed costs such as lighting and heating, but it only pulls in 24 million through its provision of healthcare to local commissioners. This equates to an annual deficit of 8 million. It is acknowledged that Cannock Community Hospital is currently an under-utilised asset. Recent figures have suggested that the Hospital is running at just 40% capacity. Mid Staffs Chief Executive Lyn Hill-Tout said recently at a Public Meeting: As we stand here tonight, we do not have a plan to balance the books over the next three years. Graham Urwin, Chief Executive of South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust, said at the same meeting: Does that mean that we should have more services delivered locally in Cannock? Yes we should. Does that mean that the Hospital will become fully utilised as the place to provide healthcare? Then I think I would have to say no, that is unlikely."

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The fact that the Trust will not commission enough services there to make it break even financially, and GPs are not making full use of the services provided there, is the cause of the defecit and low utilisation. This is despite the Cannock Clinical Commissioning Group saying it is fully committed to the continued provision of local services at Cannock Hospital. On 11th September, Monitor announced a competitive tender for experts to draw up a rescue plan to protect health services for patients at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. A consortium headed by Ernst and Young bringing together a wide range of expertise in healthcare, service redesign and managing complex restructuring will consider all the options for providing healthcare services in the area, and determine the best way of achieving a solution that ensures those services are finically sustainable for the long-term. It is acknowledged that the status quo at Cannock Hospital is unsustainable and more needs to be done to get services into the Hospital in order for it to pay its way and ensure the Hospital is fully utilised. This is the job of the Trust and GPs, but increasingly also falls to the wider public sector and local public service providers to find a way to keep it open.