A new “Super Trust” which will see two major hospital organisations merged could lead to downgraded services and lack of investment into neglected facilities, it has been claimed.

Andrew Lydon, former governor at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) said the union with University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) is bad news for patients.

HEFT runs Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals, whilst UHB controls the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Edgbaston.

Heartlands Hospital, in Bordesley Green.

It was announced today that one “super trust” will manage all hospitals and community services, either through acquisition or merger.

The move will affect millions of patients across the city.

Despite MPs saying the decision will lead to better care and more jobs, Mr Lydon said this was far from the case.

And that patients may find themselves having to travel further across the city for procedures.

“I cannot see any good outcome from this merger,” he told the Birmingham Mail. “Heartlands is the mothership at HEFT, with both Good Hope and Solihull acting as satellite sites. The QE is its own mothership.

“However this move will see Heartlands downgraded from a mothership to a satellite.

“The problem with that is Solihull will probably become the satellite of a satellite and my fear is that it will eventually turn into a community hospital, like West Heath and Moseley Hall Hospitals.

Solihull Hospital.

“It could bring in a situation where we see many people diverted to the QE. So we will have patients from Solihull and East Birmingham having to travel across to Edgbaston.

“All of the division of labour within HEFT will have to change. You will end up getting back to a situation where everything important goes on around Edgbaston.

“The distribution will shift more towards the QE where the most important procedures will be carried out.”

Chief executive of UHB Dame Julie Moore was brought in to oversee the running of HEFT in November last year, after the trust found itself badly in deficit.

Mr Lydon added: “HEFT was badly managed and Dame Julie Moore has not been able to overcome that problem.”

He said that a crucial investment of £150 million is needed to update the facilities at HEFT’s three hospitals. Yet there has been no mention of this happening as part of the merger.

“All three hospitals are in need of investment. Wards haven’t been refurbished in years and the neglected kit needs updating.

“When Dame Julie Moore came over she had people to look at state of the hospitals and found that they needed this investment.

“But nothing was mentioned since and now we have been told that the trust will “work together” with UHB.

“By its own historic standards, care at Heartlands has gone downhill but Good Hope was catching up and has actually met the four hour waiting time target in recent months.

“It has improved an awful lot.

Good Hope Hospital. in Sutton Coldfield.

“But with this merger, all the highly qualified medics will gravitate towards the QE, which will be given more money for the more hi-tech procedures that it carries out.”

Dame Julie said after the announcement there was “absolutely no desire or intention” to close any clinical or A&E departments or to look for redundancies.

She said there would be a cost to the move but “there was also a cost to not doing it” as “at the moment the taxpayer is paying a lot to bail out an overspending trust”.

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