West Suffolk Hospital launches NHS Foundation Trust consultation

Date:    Saturday 21 February, 2004

Time:    10.00 am

Venue:  Bury St Edmunds Market, opposite Dixons store

Reporters and photographers are welcome

The West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust will be launching its bid to become one of the government’s new NHS Foundation Trusts on Saturday.

The launch will take place on Bury market, led by the trust chairman Veronica Worrall and senior members of her team. Launching the 10 week consultation period in such a public place fits in with one of the major planks of the NHS Foundation Trust reforms, that of encouraging local people to become members and have a direct say in the future of their hospital services.

The West Suffolk Hospital Trust, which runs the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and the Walnuttree and St Leonard’s Hospitals in Sudbury, is eligible to become a NHS Foundation Trust having been rated as a three star organisation in the Government’s Performance Ratings last summer.

The event on the market will mark the publication of the West Suffolk Hospital’s full NHS Foundation application document and summary leaflets, more than 100,000 of which will be sent to patients, carers, members of the public and members of trust staff. All the public documents contain forms which it is hoped people will fill in and return to the hospital as an expression of their interest in becoming members of the new NHS Foundation Trust.

The West Suffolk is also holding a number of public meetings throughout the area and is hoping to be invited to address groups and members of organisations during the 10-week consultation period which ends on April 30.

“This is the most exciting and significant change in the West Suffolk Hospital’s long and distinguished history,” said Veronica Worrall. “For the first time every adult member of the community that we serve will be able to have a direct say in the future of the health services we provide.”

19 February, 2004