BOURNEMOUTH and Poole hospitals must clearly set out the merits of merger proposals and include residents in the process, a health watchdog has said.
Healthwatch Dorset, which represents patients from across the county, has previously been highly critical of the public consultation on the NHS Dorset Clinical Service Review (CSR).
The review, which will see Royal Bournemouth Hospital become the main emergency site for Dorset and Poole Hospital become the major planned care site, losing its A&E and maternity and paediatrics services, was approved on Wednesday.
The following day the two trusts announced early proposals to merge, potentially as soon as next year, four years after similar plans were blocked on the basis they would “damage patient interests”.
Healthwatch Dorset manager Martyn Webster said the trusts must properly involve patients in the decision-making process.
“The most important thing for us is whether this merger will benefit local people,” he said.
“So we’d like to see a statement from the hospitals setting out clearly, in plain language, what they believe the benefits would be for patients, and how they will involve local people, including their staff, in the decision.”
Back in April the watchdog released a report into the CSR consultation, which it said showed many patients had given up on filling in the questionnaire as they thought it was “full of waffle”.
Then, Mr Webster said his body had warned Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure its proposals were clear and jargon free.
“We pointed out that shorter documents are much more likely to be read than longer ones,” he said.
“As it turned out, the official consultation document ran to 48 pages. The great majority of people who spoke to us about it said it was too long, full of jargon and ‘waffle’.”
The previous failed merger talks, which stopped in October 2013, cost the NHS £5 million, however both trusts claim operating the new cost-saving model introduced by the CSR as two separate organisations would be “extremely difficult”.
The hospitals are now in talks with the Competitions and Markets Authority.
Article originally appeared Daily EchoÂ
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