Candidates call for delay and consultation on big changes to local NHS. Worcestershire's Conservative candidates have repeated their call for a delay to huge changes to the running of the local NHS in the run up to the general election and welcomed NHS Worcestershire’s announcement that public consultation will take place after the election. Last month Conservative candidates met county hospital chiefs to discuss the planned changes, hearing from hospital managers their view of the plans and expressing the concerns felt by local communities and staff about the way they are being rushed through. In a joint statement after the meeting, they expressed their concern that profound changes were being rushed through in the run up to an election. This week NHS Worcesterhire confirmed that its board had met and agreed proposals paving the way forward for the details to be submitted to the Department of Health and for formal public consultation on the proposal to take place after the General Election. NHS Worcestershire is proposing:

• To transfer some specialist nursing services (eg diabetes and COPD) to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust.
• To more closely integrate GP services with community nursing and therapy services, based around strengthening Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) in Worcestershire.
• That an entirely new Community and Mental Health NHS Trust is established to manage all of the other Provider Arm services (including community hospitals) and the services that are currently provided by the Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

Today the candidates restated their intention to engage with a proper consultation in due course, but their opposition to any rushed decisions or any attempt to force through changes before the election. Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire), Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest), Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove), Peter Luff MP (Mid Worcestershire), Karen Lumley (Redditch) and Robin Walker (Worcester) issued a joint statement saying: "The NHS has been re-organised too often in recent years. We are profoundly concerned about the ridiculously short timescale that was imposed on the Worcestershire NHS for such important decisions. We know there are a wide range of opinions about this within the local healthcare community and think it is vitally important that patients have their say. We therefore call on the government to delay the process it has imposed on Worcestershire and give a full year to allow possible changes to be worked through carefully." "We welcome NHS Worcestershire’s announcement that they agree there should be a full consultation on this after the election and reiterate that any consultation must pay real attention to the views of all our constituents who use or work in the NHS. We are particularly concerned that changes to the mental health trust should be carefully thought through for their impact on vulnerable people. The NHS, patients and staff are too important to be treated with contempt by the government and reorganizations imposed by Whitehall are not the answer to improving service.”