New super surgery at Victoria Infirmary Northwich may not go ahead

9:48am Wednesday 3rd March 2010

Exclusive By Gina Bebbington

NORTHWICH has been kicked in the teeth yet again as health bosses revealed they cannot afford a new super surgery or beds unit at the infirmary.

Residents expected to be consulted early this year on plans to develop the Victoria Infirmary Northwich (VIN) to include three town-centre GP surgeries and a new inpatient unit.

But the recession was blamed by representatives of Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), which is leading the project, at a public meeting on Thursday, Geoff Wood, of the PCT, said the project to merge Witton Street, Danebridge and Middlewich Road surgeries under one roof with the infirmary, had been the favoured option throughout 2009 until the economic downturn.

“We are in a serious financial situation. The cost of the development to move the facilities to one site probably makes this a non-option from now on, it probably throws it out of the window.”

Mr Wood talked about improving healthcare in Northwich at the meeting, organised by Cheshire West and Chester Local Involvement Network (LINk), which was followed by a question-and-answer session with a panel of NHS experts.

This panel included Mike Pyrah, chief executive of the PCT, who said the trust was still keen to improve healthcare in Northwich, but had to come up with a ‘revenue neutral’ plan that would make use of existing resources and not cost any extra cash.

“If we don’t do that it’s down to what growth there is in the NHS in the future.” He added: “I think if we were waiting for growth to come back to the NHS before doing things we would be waiting an awfully long time.”

Although the three surgeries are overcrowded and dated, the most urgent issue is the inpatient unit at VIN, looked after by Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The 103-year-old unit was threatened with closure four years ago because it was nearing the end of its useful life, prompting the successful Save Our Northwich Inpatients Campaign (SONIC).

Health bosses pledged to rebuild the ageing 25-bed facility and replace it with a modern 32-bed unit as part of the creation of a super surgery at VIN.

But this depends on funding and residents were warned that keeping the current unit open may soon be out of trust hands.

Denise Frodsham, from Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have kept the ward to the highest quality and standard we can.

“In 2009, it showed considerable deterioration in infrastructure and building design itself – and we’re expecting the next structural survey in April or May.

“It cannot meet any of the modern design guides – we can’t put new equipment in there because it’s built on a massive cellar and the floors won’t take the weight.

“The current building design is not sufficient to make the necessary changes to ever fit in with the new regulations.”

She added: “We are fully committed to the re-provision of 32 beds when given the funds to go ahead.”

Mr Pyrah said: “The current position is that in order for us to develop VIN, we need to do the primary care developments at VIN.

“Should there be a requirement to close the beds sooner than we have the new development online we will have to come back and talk about what the options are and how we can use staff in a different way.

Nora Dolphin, chairman of Cheshire West and Chester LINk, said: “I hope the present financial climate doesn’t mean we will lose the opportunity altogether to develop the beds unit at VIN.”