Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, has received a response from both the Health Secretary and the Medical Director of Assura about the issue of coterminosity and Haslemere Hospital. There had been concerns that plans contained in the new Health and Social Care Bill would leave Haslemere Hospital at a disadvantage because it will need to be linked solely with one county. At the moment Haslemere serves patients from three counties and there is a fear that a coterminous relationship solely with Surrey would mean the hospital would lose up to a third of its patients who currently come from West Sussex and East Hampshire. In a reply from Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health stated that “The NHS Future Forum’s recommendation only applies to CCGs and is not relevant to hospitals, which will still be able to receive patients from different areas subject to Clinical Commissioning Group funding…one of the key roles for CCGs will be to manage relationships with local hospital providers and in some areas patient flows into acute hospitals that do not match local authority boundaries”. As a result of this Jeremy wrote to Vivienne McVey, Medical Director at Assura to seek reassurance that once Assura take over from the PCT, they will do what they can to encourage patient referral to Haslemere Hospital. Vivienne McVey said: “We will be working with CCGs in West Sussex and north east Hampshire to encourage them to enable patients to attend Haslemere Hospital, and suggest that you might want to liaise with the aspirant CCGs and PCT cluster about their plans in this regard”.
Commenting on the responses Jeremy said: “It is vital the new Commissioning Groups understand that people in Haslemere put a high value on being treated close to home - which is why we are so passionate in our defence of Haslemere Hospital. I will keep banging the drum on this point - not for the first time.""
