"Case for Change" published by the NHS Trust - Maternity, Neonatal, Inpatient Paediatrics AT RISK !
"Case for Change" published by Norfolk & Waveney University Hospitals Group - Maternity, Neonatal, Inpatient Paediatrics / Children’s Ward at RISK!
The main good news is that the documents released today do not propose wholesale downgrading of QEH. A substantial acute hospital remains in all shortlisted scenarios, including an A&E Emergency Department and critical care. The clearest structural risk however is to women’s and children’s services. In two of the four shortlisted configurations, QEH would lose its maternity delivery suite, and this would also remove its neonatal unit and inpatient paediatrics. Twenty-four-hour emergency surgery is linked to retaining a delivery suite.
We have made our position clear by signing the petition and standing up for the QEH at the Tuesday Market Place, and made a difference. We as a community now know the reality of what we are faced with, and this will help us plan together the next steps. If you would like to take an in depth read of the documents released today at midday, they are here.
Maternity, and much more is at stake
Analysis of the NHS documents shows that maternity is the clearest major service at risk at QEH. Crucially, this is not simply a question of where babies are born. The NHS appraisal establishes a direct relationship between maternity and several other essential hospital services. If QEH were to lose its delivery suite, it would also lose its neonatal unit and inpatient paediatric services. The documents also state that a hospital delivering babies must have 24/7 emergency surgery.
Importantly, one of the options being considered would not only retain maternity at QEH but potentially strengthen its role. Under that scenario, QEH and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital would become the two principal maternity sites, with an estimated additional 1,650 women using QEH. The appraisal describes this as a way of creating two more sustainable maternity units while preserving a delivery site in West Norfolk. That makes the choices being considered especially important. The future of maternity at QEH is genuinely in play, and there is still an opportunity for our community to make its voice heard. The ward has a an overall GOOD rating from the most recent CQC inspection, to include being "well-led", with 17 areas scoring better than the national average to include pain management, respectful care and postnatal support. The Head of Midwifery at the QEH, Esther Dorken. She is highly regarded within the trust for leading significant improvements in patient care, division culture and service safety.
Is this really about saving money?
Whilst the QEH has many props holding up the ceiling, the Norfolk and Norwich is currently propping up the finances of the QEH. Was this the main reason for the "3 hospitals 1 trust" model? Who knows, but there is another aspect of these proposals that our community deserves to understand: money. The NHS Group’s own preliminary financial modelling forecasts a £34 million structural deficit by 2034/35 under its “Do minimum” scenario and states that this deficit could be eliminated depending on which combination of service reconfigurations is chosen.
The figures for maternity are particularly striking. According to the modelling, retaining two maternity delivery suites at NNUH and QEH would produce an estimated net saving of around £8 million. Retaining two at NNUH and JPUH would save around £6 million. But concentrating maternity into a single delivery suite at NNUH is estimated to save around £18 million.
That raises an important question for our community: how much weight is being given to financial savings when decisions about the future of maternity and linked services are made? Decisions of this importance should not be driven by which option produces the biggest saving on a spreadsheet. They must properly reflect patient safety, access to care, journey times, the needs of families across West Norfolk and the consequences for the other services that depend upon maternity remaining at QEH.
Saving money may be a legitimate consideration for the NHS, but it cannot be allowed to become the overriding consideration when the future of essential local healthcare is at stake. Our community deserves confidence that any eventual decision will be based first and foremost on what provides safe, accessible and sustainable healthcare for the people who depend on QEH, not simply on which configuration saves the most money.
NEW: Save QEH Services: Add Your Voice and Tell Your Story
The campaign to protect vital services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is now entering an important new phase, and this time, we want the voices and experiences of local people to be at its heart.
The Save QEH Services Petition is approaching 12,000 supporters, demonstrating the strength of feeling across West Norfolk and the wider area about the future of our hospital. But behind every signature is a person, a family and often a story about why having a full acute hospital in King’s Lynn matters. That is why our community campaign will increasingly focus on the experiences of local people who have used maternity and related services at the QEH. We want to hear from mothers and families whose babies were born there, people who needed specialist care during pregnancy or childbirth, families whose babies needed neonatal care, and parents whose children have been cared for by the hospital’s paediatric teams. These stories matter because the decisions now being considered could fundamentally change the range of services available at QEH.
If you or your family have used QEH maternity services, if your baby needed neonatal care, if your child has been treated by the hospital’s paediatric team, or if maternity and linked emergency services at QEH have made a difference to your family, please tell us your story.
On the Save QEH Services Petition website, use the “Add Your Voice” section to explain, in your own words, why these services matter and why you believe maternity and its linked services should remain at QEH. Why not upload a video or audio. We want the voice of the community heard.
Perhaps QEH was there when something went wrong unexpectedly during a pregnancy or birth. Perhaps having maternity services close to home made an enormous difference to your family. Perhaps your newborn needed additional care. Or perhaps you simply believe future generations of families in West Norfolk should continue to have these services available locally.
Whatever your experience, we want to hear it. Over the coming weeks, our community campaign will help bring these local stories together and show what maternity, neonatal, children’s and emergency services at QEH mean in the real lives of the people they serve.
The proposals currently being considered are not final decisions. They are options for further development, engagement, modelling and assurance. That is precisely why speaking up now matters.
The most consequential decision for King’s Lynn is not whether QEH retains an A&E, it does under every shortlisted scenario. It is whether QEH remains a hospital with a full women’s and children’s inpatient complex and round-the-clock emergency surgery. Together, we can make sure that when decisions about the future of QEH are made, the voices of the people who depend upon it are impossible to ignore.
Thank you
Cllr Rob Colwell
Gaywood North & Central, Norfolk County Council
Gaywood North Bank, King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council
Chair and Parliamentary Spokesperson, North West Norfolk Liberal Democrats