Havant hospital plans consultation 'was flawed'
A public consultation over possible uses for a new hospital site has been branded as flawed after health administrators opted for a different plan altogether.
A councillor says the decision makes a mockery of the survey carried out by NHS Hampshire into the future of Havant's 38m Oak Park Hospital.
Survey forms were sent to residents when plans for the hospital hit the rocks last year.
Cash-strapped NHS Hampshire came up with two cheaper options as alternatives - providing a mixture of services at Havant Health Centre and at the nearby Oak Park Children's Centre.
But Cllr Ann Buckley, who sits on Hampshire County Council's health overview and scrutiny committee, is angry as the option being taken forward was not in the survey at all
NHS Hampshire now wants all services to be provided on one site at the Children's Centre under a 3.2m plan.
It also faces claims that East Hampshire residents were not properly consulted.
Cllr Buckley, who represents Bedhampton and Leigh Park, said: 'The clarity you would expect has not been there. The consultation has been limited and it makes me feel the process is flawed.'
Inger Hebden, director of capital planning at NHS Hampshire, said services would be provided on one site after her team worked out an extension could be built on the Children's Centre.
But, she said, this option only came in after the survey forms had been sent out.
She said Havant Citizens' Panel - a consultative group made up of around 1,500 residents - was contacted for views.
But in East Hampshire, which doesn't have a Citizens' Panel, only residents who had signed up to NHS Hampshire for information updates were contacted. Of the 176 people contacted, around a third replied.
Mrs Hebden said: 'I agree it's not as good. There was nothing else we could do in the time we had that was on the same scale as the citizens' panel.'
She added proposals would be outlined in East Hampshire council's May newsletter.
'We are planning to go out and speak to the public in supermarkets,' she added. 'There are more workshops. The engagement is continual.'
A statement from NHS Hampshire added: 'At no time have we withheld information from the Committee and we have endeavoured to be open and transparent throughout. We have been very clear from the outset that it remains our intention to commission a range of locally accessible health services for the population of Havant and the southern parishes of East Hampshire.'
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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