Both the Trust and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) are committed to ensuring that the population of Furness has access to safe, sustainable, and high-quality services; locally provided, where safe and sustainable. We cannot, and will not, provide a service that is unsafe.
That said, we also want to ensure that we take the appropriate time to fully explore and evaluate potential alternative models of care for Level 3 critical care at FGH and determine the best way forward. The ICB and the Trust agree that it is important to be flexible on the timings to allow the time and space for further exploration to be done and to accelerate the positive work that is underway.
Over recent months, teams across FGH and the Trust have made several positive steps forward, including:
- Recruitment to key posts at the hospital continues with some positive successes - including the recruitment of two Consultant Intensivists.
- Development of a new enhanced model of care which looks after the sickest patients at FGH - developed in partnership by intensivists and surgeons.
- Submission of a bid to fund a research and education programme aimed at nurses, Allied Health Professionals and medics.
- Development of a business case as the first step in developing a potential robotic surgery offer at FGH that would improve patient outcomes and help attract clinicians to work at the hospital.
- Ongoing discussions with Defence Medical Services to see what support may be available, including the potential for deployed defence medical colleagues as happens in some other hospitals elsewhere in NHS England.
- Establishment of a FGH Working Group that has considerable commitment from partners, including BAE Systems, local elected representatives, NHS England and others, in supporting discussions about the long-term future of healthcare services in Furness and Barrow.
We believe it is important that the work currently underway, together with the forthcoming Clinical Senate review, is allowed to further inform our understanding of what may be clinically, operationally, and financially safe and sustainable in the future.
To be clear, the above is positive progress but we are not yet in a place where we can safely reinstate ongoing Level 3 care at FGH, nor is it a guarantee that we will be able to in the future.
No final decisions to permanently change Level 3 care at FGH are planned to be made before October 2027. This gives us time to be able to carry on with the improvement work and ensure that any future decisions are informed by the best available clinical evidence and expertise.
Alongside this, we remain committed to listening carefully to the views of patients, colleagues, local communities, elected representatives, and wider stakeholders as part of the ongoing process.
We would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support, and we will update further as we progress.
Steve Williamson Aaron Cummins
UHMBT Chief Executive ICB Chief Executive