Cllr Roger Rigby has hit out at NHS chiefs who recommended the closure of Bedford Hospital’s maternity services and then refused to explain their decision.
In June the latest report from the much-maligned Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes Healthcare Review outlined a plan to relocate maternity services from Bedford Hospital to Milton Keynes Hospital.
The report was authored by the bodies responsible for organising NHS services in both areas, namely the Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
Just 48 hours after the proposal was issued, CCG representatives incredibly declined to give media interviews, citing that they could not speak during the EU referendum ‘purdah’ period, so as not to influence voters’ intentions. This stance has been criticised by the Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens in a letter to Richard Fuller MP.
At a meeting last week of the committee scrutinising the review, the head of the Bedfordshire CCG apologised, but Cllr Rigby, who was in attendance, was not convinced. He said:
‘How can they recommend the closure of Bedford Hospital’s maternity service and then run away? They have caused untold chaos and confusion with a grave error of judgement.
‘The report has done a great deal of harm to morale at Bedford Hospital and will cause worry for residents being asked to travel potentially over an hour to give birth in Milton Keynes.
‘This multi-million pound shambles of a review has been going for 2 years to get to this point. It should now be killed off.’