Our Foundation Trust Application
Outcome of the consultation
The formal consultation on our proposals to become an NHS Foundation Trust closed on Friday 2 February 2007.
The consultation and staff engagement process was extremely positive. There has been almost universal acceptance of our application to become an NHS Foundation Trust, and for our service development priorities, governance arrangements and recruitment of members.
The general public have shown a great deal of support and loyalty for the hospital generally and little dissention from our proposed governance arrangements. The one change that we have made was to move the population of the Christchurch district from the Bournemouth part of our public constituency and include it in that for the district of Purbeck and East Dorset. This has been done as a result of comments made by the Bournemouth Health Scrutiny Committee and more closely aligns our constituency to the OSC boundaries.
The only areas that have attracted negative comment from members of the public and patients were outside of the scope of this consultation. These comments concerned difficulty of access, car parking and waiting times in outpatient clinics. This has been very useful intelligence for the Trust and we have listened carefully to what people have told us about their experience of care at our Trust. We are considering how the issues raised can be best addressed and have included them as areas for action within our annual business plan for 2007/08.
There was discussion among all groups about future financial issues and support for the new freedoms which will come with being an NHS Foundation Trust. Local people and patient groups enthusiastically accepted that our governance proposals will bring greater democracy into future decision making and were keen to find out how they could become more involved.
Each public meeting has been attended by at least one member of the Poole PPI Forum, both as its chosen way to participate in the consultation and to ensure that we conduct the process properly.
Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset Health Scrutiny Committees have each supported our proposals, with the one area of dissention and change requested by Bournemouth. We have the support of both Primary Care Trusts and the strategic health authority, NHS South West. Patient groups and community organisations have also supported our proposals.
We must submit our plans to the Secretary of State for Health for her consideration Friday 16 February.