In the Summer of 2007, shortly after being selected for the new Winchester seat, I produced the first edition of my ‘Winchester Post’ constituency newspaper.
The headline said my priority, if elected, would be the local NHS and I have remained true to my word.
That publication (and every one since) said I wanted us to retain a District General Hospital in Winchester worthy of the name with full service A&E and consultant-led maternity services. I think that’s clear.
Seventeen years later, my view hasn’t changed; if anything it’s hardened as the city has grown.
I was fortunate, between 2017-19, to join the Government as a Health Minister and now use that experience to chair the Health Select Committee but the focus on local services remains.
Over the years, I have always supported the RHCH and the services we as a family rely on. And I have successfully fought to bring new investment here.
Transformed maternity suites in ‘Flo-Po’, a refurbished A&E with children’s services and the day treatment centre are just some of the examples I am proud to have opened. The new elective hub is next.
I don’t do that out of some dewey eyed sense of nostalgia but because ours is a small hospital that works in partnership with larger acute trusts while maintaining a local feel and a good service staffed largely by fellow residents.
When, in January 2012, Hampshire Hospitals was created and joined together with Basingstoke and Andover it was obvious the debate about the mix of clinical services would intensify.
Being a local NHS champion is not about moving to Winchester and saying you are. It’s about truly understanding the acute services we actually have and working with clinicians to protect them in the face of external forces.
It’s why I have held numerous ‘ASKtheNHS’ public meetings to give constituents’ the platform to speak directly with health leaders and say why they support A&E plus full maternity services in the city.
Details of all, with a You Tube recording of the A&E special I held a few years back, are at: www.stevebrine.com/askseries
This current consultation is not the first - and doubtless won’t be the last - but it is certainly the most politicised and I regret that. It scares people and distracts the public gaze from what’s really under threat.
Truth is, A&E in Winchester isn’t closing should these proposals ever go ahead (by no means certain) but it is changing.
If you’re acutely unwell or have a serious accident in Winchester in the future, as now, the blue light services will take you to the right place to save your life. As one consultant at HHFT put it; if we’re fixing you, you’ll go to Winchester - if we’re saving you, you’ll goto the new hospital.
Of greater concern to me is what we are losing - consultant led maternity services and neonatal care. There is nothing inherently wrong with midwife led care of course but I remain unconvinced this change would be either safe or sustainable; or that we have the ambulance service to transfer in an emergency situation.
We should take this consultation seriously - and engage with it - because far from cutting our local NHS this Government seeks to invest between £700-£900m in it. But we shouldn’t accept it without question.
One aspect of this I was not surprised to see surface again was the call to build a new hospital on the Sir John Moore Barracks site.
Back in 2017, in another election year, I remember another opponent splashing this ‘idea’ across the Hampshire Chronicle. It was a red herring then and it is now.
This new hospital is a (badly needed) replacement for Basingstoke so of course it’s not going to be in Winchester.
Sure we need “significant investment” at the RHCH - and I’ve secured the commitment for exactly that from successive Ministers - but it’s a dangerous distraction to wheel out the barracks again and those saying as much know it.
A factsheet was published alongside the current consultation showing how sites for a new hospital were evaluated and, crucially, it’s earmarked by Winchester City Council for 1,000 new houses in its’ draft Local Plan.
If that has changed, with the implications for the countryside of that many houses elsewhere, the leadership at WCC must say so urgently. I have written to Cllr Martin Tod to seek clarification.
For near twenty years I have worked to understand and support the NHS locally.
That hasn’t always been easy (such as supporting acute orthopaedics being centralised elsewhere which was the right thing to do) but having served as our MP for many years I know it’s as important to get the job with integrity as it is to do it with such should you win.
You can follow much more of this, over many years, at stevebrine.com/prioritynhs
