Politicians across West Norfolk have described their “disgust” at the possibility of Lynn’s hospital losing three departments – with one saying it would “kill us”.
It comes after reports this week that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital could be downgraded, with there being a risk of its Accident and Emergency, intensive care and maternity units closing.
While officials at the QEH have insisted that no decisions have been made about “future service configuration”, senior sources say that there have been discussions about the possibility of shutting the departments as part of a strategy focused on providing care over the next ten to 20 years.
Rob Colwell (left) and Jo Rust (right) pictured during a Save the QEH campaign back in 2023 – will they have to restart?
With the hospital having been rated as the worst-performing in the country, health bosses are said to believe that closing some struggling services could allow them to focus on others to improve its fortunes – with patients needing those services being better served by being sent elsewhere.
This would mean that patients requiring life-saving care could face trips of more than an hour to Norwich, Cambridge or Peterborough.
This news has caused alarm among many, including two of the leading figures behind the ‘Save the QEH’ campaign of the early 2020s, who continuously called for a new hospital to be built to replace the current crumbling facility, before government funding was secured.
Will the QEH in Lynn be “downgraded”?
Jo Rust, who is secretary of Lynn and District Trade Union Council, and who represents the Springwood ward – encompassing the QEH – on West Norfolk Council, told the Lynn News she was “horrified and disgusted” at the possibility it could be downgraded.
“It would absolutely minimise our hospital to nothing more than a cottage hospital. They have long said there are no plans to do this,” she said.
A cottage hospital is defined as a small healthcare facility designed to provide general medical care and minor treatments.
Cllr Rust, who is also cabinet member for people and communities, went as far as to say: “They are going to kill us.”
“If you are in an emergency situation, you have to get to A&E within an hour. If not, your likelihood of survival is far less,” she added.
“It’s absolutely appalling that they have been unable to fix their own failures and the easiest option is for them to close three important services.
“This can’t be allowed to happen.”
Cllr Rust said she would, in her trade union role, be looking at next steps to prevent the closure of the departments.
She also said she believed that senior leaders at the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group – formed last year to run the QEH alongside the Norfolk and Norwich and James Paget hospitals – had “already made the decision”, which is something they have denied.
“Without these three units, we have no hospital – they are absolutely essential,” Cllr Rust said, adding: “This is just more evidence of the contempt with which they hold our local residents.”
Meanwhile, Rob Colwell, borough and county councillor for Gaywood, has launched a petition on change.org to “save life-saving departments” at the QEH, after stating that he would not “stand by and watch” it be downgraded.
He said the reports should “alarm every resident of West Norfolk”, adding that he was “angry, deeply concerned and determined to fight any attempt” to do so.
Having undergone surgery at the hospital in August, Cllr Colwell said the care he received was “exemplary”, with his experience making him “even more determined to defend” it and the people who work there.
“We should be investing in it, not stripping it back,” he said.
Concerns he raised about the future of general surgery at the QEH back in March – due to fears it could be significantly reduced or reorganised” were “dismissed” by the trust, Cllr Colwell said, adding: “I can reveal the trust has still not made a final decision.”
“Those concerns with this new announcement now feel even more urgent,” he said, as he called for answers from the NHS on the future of Lynn’s hospital.
And borough and county councillor, Alexandra Kemp, warned that “lives will be lost” if these units are taken away.
“This appalling devastation of the NHS cannot, and must not, go ahead,” she said.
“We successfully fought the removal of cancer services from the QEH to Norwich in 2017.
“Then we campaigned for the hospital rebuild, but the suggestion that the new hospitals group could axe A&E, critical care and maternity tells the public that the new strategic management structure understands nothing about the demography or geography of West Norfolk.
“West Norfolk is a rural area with poor transport links and deprivation hotspots.”
Cllr Kemp has called for the disbandment of the group model.
“The recent centralisation of the NHS, with the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group model now making the strategic investment decisions for all three hospitals, is not fit for purpose and should be disbanded now,” she said.
Meanwhile, West Norfolk’s two MPs have also expressed their hopes for reassurance from the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group.
James Wild, the Conservative MP for North West Norfolk, said: “Any suggestion key services will be permanently moved from the QEH will rightly cause significant concern among patients and staff and has not been raised in the regular discussions I have with QEH and the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group.
“Any such proposals would be strongly opposed by our community which campaigned strongly for a new hospital and state-of-the-art facilities and care locally.
“Therefore I have asked the group to provide urgent reassurance that there is no intention to downgrade QEH’s status as a district general hospital providing A&E, general surgery, and other specialist care.”
However, Terry Jermy, the Labour MP for South West Norfolk, who highlighted the issues facing the QEH in his maiden speech in the House of Commons, struck a more supportive note.
He said: “The commitment both from this Labour Government and the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group to maintain services on-site is clear, and a commitment that I strongly share.
“We need to ensure the care and services delivered to people in West Norfolk are of the highest quality, which inevitably in a hospitals group model like this, will see conversations had about what services are best delivered at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and what services may be best delivered at the two other acute hospitals in the model.
“I am determined that within those conversations, West Norfolk’s specific health needs, rurality and the impact of health inequalities are properly reflected in the services to be delivered.”
The news of the talks has also thrown into doubt the £1.4billion plans to rebuild the current site, much of which is propped up by scaffolding poles to prevent its roof from falling in.
However, Professor Lesley Dwyer, the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group chief executive, said: “No decisions have been made about future service configuration.
“We are determined to make the very best of the £2.8 billion investment through the two New Hospital Programmes to improve healthcare for people across Norfolk and Waveney, both now and for future generations.
“We know demand for healthcare is growing, people are living longer, and many are living with more complex health needs.
“That is why clinical experts from across our three hospitals are working together to develop a shared strategy focused on providing the safest, highest-quality and most sustainable care for local communities over the next 10 to 20 years.
“This work builds on closer ways of working across many of our services since the formation of the group and remains at an early stage.
“One of the principles underpinning this work is that people in West Norfolk will continue to have access to urgent and emergency care at the QEH 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”