Stepping Hill to become a Super Hospital

Stepping Hill in Stockport will have ‘super hospital’ status following a failed legal challenge by senior staff at Wythenshawe Hospital

Stockport’s Stepping Hill will have ‘super hospital’ status following a failed legal challenge.

Senior staff at Wythenshawe Hospital had challenged last year’s decision to make Stepping Hill a specialist centre for emergency abdominal surgery in the Healthier Together shake-up of NHS services across Greater Manchester.

Campaign group Keep Wythenshawe Special was granted a judicial, but following a two-day hearing Hon Mr Justice Ian Dove dismissed the appeal.

Justice Dove said he was satisfied that there was ‘no legal error in the decision reached by the Healthier Together CiC’.

Ann Barnes, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stepping Hill Hospital, said: “We are understandably pleased that the judge has upheld the Healthier Together decision to choose Stepping Hill Hospital as the fourth site for emergency and specialist abdominal surgery and the supporting emergency department services.

“The unanimous decision by the 12 Greater Manchester clinical commissioning groups in July 2015 followed a very robust process. It was undertaken by 12 doctors who are experts in their field, and the Healthier Together model was developed and endorsed by over 400 senior doctors across Greater Manchester.

“Stepping Hill Hospital treats patients from across Stockport, the High Peak and beyond, but this public decision was never just about location.

“We have rightly stressed the importance of having a ‘specialist’ hospital within a critical travel time distance, but we also have excellent results and are well placed to develop these services.”