Our local healthcare is important. We know that residents want care delivered locally. This is clear from the fact that thousands of people have signed a petition to press for our services at the Princess of Wales to be retained.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for commissioning health care services in the area. The need for local delivery of care is also clear from the CCG’s own report, Fit for the Future, which identifies that when they held listening events in 2015 they were told that when we need care urgently, we ‘would rather use a local service than be sent to A&E’ and that we ‘want care as close to home as possible’.So I think it is important that we retain the walk in service at the Princess of Wales in Ely.
To that end, I have attended public meetings with residents and the CCG and private meetings with the CCG. I have also raised the issue with the Prime Minister in Parliament. Only last week I attended a meeting of Cambridgeshire MPs together with Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of the NHS, Tracy Dowling, the Chief Officer of the CCG and other regional officers, where together the gional MPs impressed upon the NHS and the CCG the importance of local care and, in particular, the value of the Princess of Wales in Ely. I am pleased that the CCG is listening to the views of local people.
In the Sustainability and Transformation Plan dated October 2016 the CCG talked about their local engagement stating that 'taking this feedback into account, we have identified significant opportunities to deliver more joined up, effective, and efficient local urgent primary care services'.Whilst they stress that no formal decisions have been taken, 'we are now working with local stakeholders to develop the details behind a number of options including the development of three rural urgent primary care hubs which will initially focus on integrating local primary care, MIU and community services'.
As the CCG has stressed, no decision has been finally taken. But I am pleased that they are moving in the right direction and I will continue to fight to ensure that the services provided at the Princess of Wales will be retained."