The potential merger between Burton and Derby hospital trusts was the main topic of discussion at the Healthwatch annual conference for Staffordshire, held at Burton Town Hall.

A panel answered a number of questions from concerned Burton residents who had queries about many services on and units that are currently at Queen’s Hospital in Burton and how the proposed merger would affect each of these.

The panel included Helen South-Scott and Gavin Boyle, chief executives for Burton Hospitals and Derby Teaching Hospitals respectively, and the medical directors from both trusts, Magnus Harrison of Burton and Nigel Sturrock of Derby.

Question:

"My grandson had a nasty burn across his chest and stomach, he came to Burton and was referred to the burns unit in Birmingham. Is there any opportunity from this merger to give Burton that kind of service in either Burton or Derby?

Answer from Magnus Harrison, Burton:

“The reason we can’t deliver any burn care in Burton or Derby is because it is so specialised and so rare that burn centres were moved because it's so infrequent that we need care from a burn centre.

“The best care for your grandson is in Birmingham and it always will be.”

Question:

“Pension funds have a huge impact when you have a merger if they are in different areas and I was wondering if the NHS pension fund is funded in the same area in Burton that it is in Derby.”

Answer from Gavin Boyle, Derby:

“Pensions will not be affected regardless of the outcome of the merger.”

Question:

“My wife had breast cancer five years ago and has seen the breast team in Burton and the treatment was absolutely fantastic, second to none, and we can’t criticise it in anyway. The merger creates anxiety for those in the support group that they run, they hear rumours that the place is going to be shut down.”

Answer from Magnus Harrison, Burton:

“Categorically, there are no plans to close the breast care unit from where it is in Burton. The only thing that will change is that we will use some of the Derby consultants to help us deliver that service.

Question:

“Can you comment on the future of neurological services in Derby and Burton?”

Answer from Magnus Harrison, Burton:

“From the Burton element, neurological services has been very difficult for us. We have tried to recruit consultants time and again but have failed. We had one consultant who resigned a couple of months ago.

“A single consultant service isn’t sustainable purely for the fact that consultants need holidays. We’ve been through a number of attempts to find people to help us. Derby itself only have three consultants, who find it tricky to provide their services to Burton as well.

“I’ve spoken to the medical director of the Walton neurone centre in Liverpool to see if they can help and I’ve got a conversation tomorrow with the medical director of UHP to see if they can help.

“A local doctor has come in for the time being to see patients on the follow up list. We just can’t recruit neurologists, we have tried and done our best.”

Question:

“You mentioned the joining of community hospitals like Samuel Johnson, but other than the odd mention of Tamworth I don’t think anything else was said, can you expand?

Answer from Helen Scott-South, Burton:

“The community hospitals are really important to us, just as much it is to you as a population. We believe they have a future and the conversation in Tamworth and Lichfield that we are having is about what services should be provided inside those buildings.

“Obviously with Tamworth we are putting more day care operations in there and we want to expand the industrial services from the building. We would like to integrate the minor injuries unit into the GP offices.

“On the day services from GPs will be directly linked into the minor injuries unit because at the moment they are run separately. With the rest of the building we will consider what services people want because we don’t want to offer the same services in Tamworth and Lichfield but let’s think about how we can complement the services in both.”

Question:

“Have we looked at the cost of merging Derby into Burton?”

Answer from Gavin Boyle, Derby:

"We have looked at the actual transaction costs over which way we go and have been advised that the transaction will be cheaper if it is Derby acquiring Burton.”

Helen Scott-South added: “From a Burton point of view it is a technical thing and we have to be sensible about the economics of this. To me the most important thing is that we keep the names of the local hospitals.

“We want people to walk through the door of Queen’s Hospital and it is still Queen’s Hospital and we are fully committed to that.”

Question:

“Mental health always seems to be looked at like the Cinderella side of things and hasn’t really been mentioned here either. People from Burton go to a centre in Shropshire for mental health help and I was wondering where the dementia centre in Burton fits in with this collaboration?

Answer from Helen Scott-South, Burton:

"Certainly within the Staffordshire area, mental health is absolutely alongside physical health, as it is in Derbyshire. So I think that is a good thing and is one of the key priorities.

"Locally we want to establish an alliance board to look at how we offer our services together to the populations and it has been agreed that there will be three alliances formed and one of those is South and East Staffordshire, looking at the Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth people."

Magnus Harrison added: “The dementia centre is an interesting one because there is no opening date. The Outwoods site [at Queen’s Hospital] is one we are trying to develop, we are working with our strategic infrastructure partners looking at what offer we can put on.

“It’s not going to be quick, it will take two to three years before it is up and running.”