Residents have less than week to express their views on proposals to relocate a number of outpatient clinics from Handforth Health Centre which would affect just over 1000 local residents.
Whilst a number of services are proposed to remain on the Handforth Health Centre site, including the adjacent GP Practice, many of the clinics operated by NHS East Cheshire Trust will be relocated to alternative sites when their lease expires in October 2017.
In order to retain all the space it currently occupies at Handforth Clinic, East Cheshire NHS Trust would face additional costs of around £65,000 per year from October 2017.
A spokesperson for East Cheshire NHS Trust said "Our local health economy is currently in significant deficit and neither East Cheshire NHS Trust or NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group can justify spending significant additional funds on items that do not result in increased patient benefit.
"Some of the clinics we are proposing to move are under-utilised at Handforth and most of the patients who attend them will already travel to Macclesfield for further tests, investigations and treatment as part of their pathway of care. The services we plan to retain at Handforth are mainly therapy and nursing-based services which patients tend to use regularly and deliver hands-on care, so are more likely to bring patient benefit by being delivered locally.
"Importantly, many of these services are also available to patients from various alternative healthcare providers in the Handforth area through a national policy system which allows patients to choose where to have their treatment delivered."
In order to avoid incurring a significant additional cost from October onwards East Cheshire NHS Trust are proposing to move the following outpatient clinics from Handforth Clinic and deliver them from Macclesfield District General Hospital instead:
• Orthopaedics
• Gynaecology
• Urology
• Breast Surgery
• Audiology
• Paediatrics
They are proposing to move the following outpatient clinics from Handforth Clinic and deliver them from Knutsford and District Community Hospital instead:
• Rheumatology
• Respiratory Medicine
Additionally:
• Midwifery clinics would move to Oakenclough Children's Centre, Colshaw Drive, Wilmslow
• General Surgery clinics will be delivered from both Macclesfield Hospital and Congleton War Memorial Hospital.
A spokesperson for East Cheshire NHS Trust said "There would be no reduction in overall capacity and availability of appointments for these services. It is also important to note that less than half (46%) of patients attending these clinics are from the Handforth (SK9 postcode) area, with other patients travelling to the centre from neighbouring areas.
The following services will continue to be provided by East Cheshire Trust from Handforth Clinic, subject to final negotiations with partners:
• Community Nursing Services
• Epilepsy Clinic
• Physiotherapy
• Continence
• Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy
• Parkinson's Clinic
• Heart Failure Clinic
• Weight Management
• Anti-coagulant Clinic
• GP Out-of-Hours
• Sexual Health
• Occupational Therapy
• Podiatry
Click here for further information regarding the consultation which ends on Sunday, 3rd September.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
What is incomprehensible is reducing services, at a time when the new CEC Local Plan is going to introduce an additional 3,000+ houses over the next decade, virtually doubling the population that the Handforth Clinic serves.
We all understand the NHS needs to be very careful with its money, but saving just a few £thousand at such enormous expense in both money AND time to patients, needs rethinking. This proposal might be convenient for the East Cheshire NHS Trust, but it is extremely inconvenient for thousands of Handforth and Wilmslow patients.
services away? Macclesfield is bad enough if you don't have a car but Knutsford is a no no.
If the clinics were more widely advertised, I feel sure that the patients would opt for them.
Parking at Macclesfield is already a nightmare. Further to have to walk to clinics for disabled patients. Is the council going to pay for transport, because those unable to drive won't be able to attend?
At a time when the council have given the go ahead to having 3000 new homes in Handforth cutting local medical access is just crazy.
There is a large elderly population in the area and such people will feel the loss, many do not have their own transport and to have to travel to Knutsford, Congleton or Macclesfield would cause great hardship.