Motion on Whiston Burns Unit

At the Council meeting last week I proposed a motion about the threatened closure of the serious burns unit at Whiston Hospital. The motion was passed. It was actually proposed not just by me but by colleagues including Flo Clucas, Barbara Mace, Colin Eldridge and Paul Twigger (although the printed minutes only show my name for some reason)

I am pasting the extract from the minutes below.

The material from the Council meeting also includes the report of the Liverpool Commission.

This will all now be available at www.liverpool.gov.uk

Motion by Councillor Paula Keaveney:



Council notes with alarm the proposal to close the Burns Unit at Whiston Hospital.



Council notes that there is a proposal that in future this service should be provided elsewhere as a result of a review of service provision across the North West. The suggestion is that patients needing to be treated by a specialist unit will have to go to Manchester.



Council notes that currently the unit exists to serve around 4 million people in Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and the Isle of Man. Should there be no service at Whiston, patients would have to be transported some distance for vital treatment. Rapid treatment is important in the case of serious burns and Council is alarmed that this might hinder patients’ prospects of recovery.



Council notes that a community campaign has already started to resist these proposals.



Council calls on the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Health and the North West Strategic Health Authority giving Council’s views on this and calling for a rethink on the decision not to shortlist Whiston as a future major burns unit.





Amendment by Councillor Ian Jobling,

seconded by Councillor Flo Clucas OBE;



That the Motion be agreed subject to the wording “and Alder Hey Burns Unit” being inserted each time after the words “Whiston”