Unison 'will not campaign' against all reconfigurations

Speaking at the Conservative conference in Manchester, Christina McAnea, Unison’s national secretary for health, said: “If a decision is taken to reconfigure services, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to campaign against it. You cannot continue [running] absolutely everything with finite resources.”

She continued: “More and more patients can be treated in different settings. That will call into question the way services are currently provided.

“Sometimes difficult decisions will have to be made and, as a union, it’s not our job to fight against every single closure. A lot of our members support that view.”

Her comments come after Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Peter Carter said in June that failing hospitals should be closed.

The conference also saw open debate among MPs over the need for reconfiguration.

Health select committee member Sarah Woolaston, a former doctor and MP for Totnes, said it was important to emphasise that reconfigurations which saw professionals move out of hospitals and into the community were “not necessarily about a cut”.

But, speaking to HSJ, she admitted MPs faced a “conflict” when their constituents wanted hospitals to stay open.

Enfield North MP Nick de Bois, who has campaigned against the reduction of services at Chase Farm Hospital in north London, said he had been promised a “full reply” from Downing Street after calling for the prime minister to intervene and safeguard services.

Mr de Bois had secured a commitment from David Cameron and Andrew Lansley, when he was shadow health secretary, to retain services during the general election campaign.

However, Mr Lansley last month approved a recommendation from the Independent Reconfiguration Panel that the hospital would lose accident and emergency and maternity services.

“I won’t be a hypocrite about this. I made a clear vow Chase Farm shouldn’t be the hospital to be downgraded,” Mr de Bois told a session run by the think tank 2020Health.

When HSJ asked one MP what colleagues would make of widespread hospital reconfiguration, they replied: “People are absolutely terrified.”

Health minister Anne Milton called for honesty from decision makers about the need to take difficult decisions.

“I have great faith in the British public. What they don’t like is being sold a lie,” she said at a Health Hotel debate.

“What they don’t like is being told is [reconfiguration is] being undertaken in the interests of patient care when it’s about budgets.”