Have your say on proposals to relocate clinics

Local people are being urged to have their say on proposals to relocate some outpatient clinics from Handforth Clinic in a public consultation which started this week.

East Cheshire NHS Trust offers outpatient appointments with some consultants at Handforth Clinic, alongside a range of community healthcare services such as district nursing and physiotherapy.

Both Handforth Clinic and the adjacent Handforth Health Centre belong to the GP partners based at the building. In recent years, the part of the building used by East Cheshire NHS Trust to provide both outpatient clinics and to accommodate community health services, such as district nursing, has been let to the trust under a complex agreement involving multiple partners. The trust's existing lease expires in October 2017 and the trust faces a significant increase in costs from October if it is to keep all the space it currently occupies.

The trust is proposing to retain the majority of its community services at Handforth but relocate the consultants' clinics to its own sites in Macclesfield, Congleton and Knutsford when their lease expires in October 2017.

The proposals, which would involve no reduction in overall capacity and availability of appointments for these services, would affect just over 1000 local residents.

Services which the trust intends to move from Handforth Health Centre include:

• Orthopaedics (to Macclesfield);
• Rheumatology (to Knutsford);
• Gynaecology (to Macclesfield);
• Urology (to Macclesfield);
• Respiratory Medicine (to Knutsford);
• General Surgery (To be confirmed);
• Breast Surgery (to Macclesfield);
• Paediatrics (to Oakenclough Children's Centre, Colshaw Farm);
• Audiology (to Macclesfield);
• Plastic Surgery (to Congleton);
• Midwifery (to Oakenclough Children's Centre, Colshaw Farm);
• Community Dental (to Weston Dental Clinic, Macclesfield).

Services which the trust intends to keep at Handforth Health Centre, subject to final negotiations with partners, include:

• Community Nursing Services
• Epilepsy Clinic
• Physiotherapy
• Continence
• Cardio Respiratory Diagnostics
• Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy
• Parkinson's Clinic
• Heart Failure Clinic
• Weight Management
• Anti-coagulant Clinic
• GP Out-of-Hours

The trust's consultation document on the issue can be accessed here.

Printed copies have also been distributed at community venues in and around the Handforth area and shared with patient groups.

The consultation is set to run until Sunday, September 3rd, after which the trust will assess responses from patients, members of the public and stakeholders.

It is important to note that no final decisions have been made in relation to the proposals. The trust is encouraging everyone with an interest in the issue to take part in the consultation.

Tags:

Handforth Health Centre