Shared on behalf of Sandy Ferrelly.
URGENT
We are writing to ask you all for your help. As you probably know Hinchingbrooke will be formally merged with the Peterborough & Stamford Foundation Trust with effect from 1st April this year. In legal terms this is an acquisition, not a merger, because Hinchingbrooke is not a Foundation Trust. A Foundation Trust has more powers to organise its own destiny, including a much stronger role for patients within the management process.
All people eligible to be patients within the wide area covered, and over the age of 16, can apply to be Members of the new Trust. This Trust will be named the North West Anglia Foundation Trust. The Members then elect a Council of Governors with, in addition to appointed local County Council, Clinical Commissioning Group and staff representatives, will be made up of:
6 members from the Greater Peterborough area
5 members from the Stamford & South Lincolnshire area
6 members from the Huntingdonshire area
The Council of Directors has, amongst other powers, responsibility for appointing the Chief Executive and for holding the Non-Executive Directors on the Trust Board to account. So it is very important that Huntingdonshire has a strong voice on this Council, particularly so as the Stamford lobby is very powerful and will be working to pull more services away to Stamford Hospital, as is already the case with services such as Pain Management for Huntingdonshire patients.
I am therefore writing to urge you to register as Members of the new Trust and thus having the right to vote-in the local Directors and help hold the management to account. There is no obligation on you by becoming a member, other than gaining the right to vote, receiving updates on what is happening and being eligible to attend the Members Annual General Meeting (not obligatory).
We cannot recommend who to vote for, but one of our members will be standing.
To become a Member you need to apply to [email protected] or contact [email protected] (01733 678024 if you want to ask questions). This needs to be done within the next 7 days for registration to take place in time for you to receive voting papers.
At present only 3,000 people from the Huntingdonshire eligible population of c. 150,000 have applied, so your vote is important. If, once you have registered as a member, you feel like standing as a Director this can be done by applying to the Returning Officer, Electoral Reform Services Ltd., Independence House, 33 Clarendon Road, London N8 0NW.
I hope you will be able to help and join in protecting and improving NHS services for the Huntingdonshire area.
Please tell your colleagues, friends and family to see if they can help too.
For further information, call Sandy Ferrelly. Tel: 01480 394986.
