SUPPORT FOR STEPPING HILL TO GAIN "SPECIALIST" STATUS

Local residents have signed a petition in support of Stepping Hill Hospital being given ‘Specialist’ status and Lisa Smart, the prospective MP for Hazel Grove Constituency, was delighted recently to hand over her petition to the Minister of State for Care and Support, the Rt Hon Norman Lamb MP.

Healthcare in Greater Manchester is being reviewed and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust had appealed to residents to take part in a consultation and support the Stockport hospital’s bid to become a ‘specialist hospital’ and avoid patients being taken to Manchester for emergency surgery. The consultation period closed at the end of September resulting in 1000 names on a petition supporting option 5.1 – that Stepping Hill Hospital be granted “Specialist” status which should improve clinical effectiveness and outcomes while also improving patient experience.

Lisa, pictured left with Norman Lamb MP and Andrew Stunnel, said:

“This is the most popular petition we have ever run in Hazel Grove Constituency. I would like to thank every single one of the 1000 and more local people who have signed the petition. The support for Stepping Hill Hospital has been tremendous and the petition has certainly galvanised support from the local community.”

Emergency and high risk surgery is currently undertaken at ten hospitals across Greater Manchester – including Stepping Hill Hospital – but under the ‘Healthier Together’ initiative it is being proposed that emergency and high risk surgery is centralised within four or five ‘specialist hospitals’ which could see patients from the Stockport area being treated at Wythenshawe hospital in south Manchester. The Healthier Together travel standards state that everyone must be able to get to a ‘specialist hospital’ within 45 minutes in an emergency ambulance and via public transport to visit a patient in 75 minutes; this may not be possible for patients being brought from the outlying SK postcode regions of the High Peak and East Cheshire if they had to be taken to Wythenshawe.

Lisa said, “This is the most popular petition we have ever run in Hazel Grove Constituency. I would like to thank every single one of the 1000 and more local people who have signed the petition. The support for Stepping Hill Hospital has been tremendous and the petition has certainly galvanised support from the local community.”