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The NHS has launched a public consultation about proposed changes to five Liverpool University Hospitals (LUHFT) services.

You can share your views between 7 June and 2 August 2022.



Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT), which manages Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool University Dental Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital, is proposing some changes to five of its services: breast surgery, general surgery, nephrology, urology, and vascular care.

Between 7 June and 2 August 2022, the NHS in Knowsley, Liverpool, South Sefton, and Southport and Formby is holding a public consultation about these proposals. These are the main areas which use LUHFT services, however some patients also come from other areas, and everyone is invited to take part in the consultation.

Please read through this page and complete the questionnaire to share your views.

You can complete the questionnaire online or request a paper copy – contact details are below, along with information about some online events, where you will be able to learn more about the proposals and share your views.

Background

In 2019, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust merged to form a single organisation – Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT).

LUHFT now manages four hospital sites: Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool University Dental Hospital, and Royal Liverpool University Hospital (the Dental Hospital is not affected by any of the current proposals).

Because they used to be run by separate organisations, the different hospitals duplicate some of the same services. At the point they merged, the two different Trusts duplicated over 20 clinical services across these sites.

This isn’t a good use of resources, and it means that specialist staff, equipment and expertise is often spread thinly between hospitals. Also, patients don’t always get the same quality of care – or experience – at different sites.

Since it merged, LUHFT has been reviewing services to explore how it can improve care by bringing services together. This means looking at how to make the most of specialist skills, resources and equipment, and using the different sites in the most effective way, both for patients and staff.

Journey so far

The work to bring services together began ahead of LUHFT becoming an organisation. The first service to integrate was trauma and orthopaedics in 2019, with the orthopaedic trauma service (for unplanned care) now located at Aintree, and an elective centre (for planned care) on the Broadgreen site.

More recently, proposals to create a Comprehensive Stroke Centre at Aintree – which would mean a single hyper-acute stroke service for the crucial first 72-hours of stroke care – were put out to public consultation during winter 2021/22, with a final decision due by summer 2022.

Visit the previous consultations page for more details about the work done so far in bringing teams from different hospitals together.

Proposals

This public consultation sets out proposals for five separate clinical services:

Breast surgery – All breast surgery would take place under a single specialist team based at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Previously, surgery also took place at Aintree Hospital – this was temporarily stopped as a result of COVID-19 measures, but if the change went ahead it wouldn’t return in the future.

General Surgery (abdominal and intestines, including gastrointestinal tract, liver, colon and pancreas) – Aintree Hospital would focus on providing all emergency surgery, while the Royal Liverpool Hospital would provide planned specialist surgery. Currently, the two hospitals each provide some aspects of both. Planned (elective) care would no longer take place at Broadgreen Hospital.

Nephrology (kidneys) – All inpatient care would be centralised at a single, specialist kidney centre at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Currently, some of this care also takes place at Aintree Hospital. Satellite outpatient sites based at Aintree, Broadgreen, St Helens, Warrington, Halton, Waterloo, and Southport would continue to operate as they do now.

Urology (urinary tract/male genitals) – All inpatient care would take place at a single, specialist unit based at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, which would provide both planned surgery and be able to provide around-the-clock emergency care. Outpatient services and day case procedures would continue to take place at both the Royal Liverpool and Aintree, but would no longer be offered at Broadgreen.

Vascular surgery (arteries, veins and lymphatic system) – All inpatient care would move to Aintree Hospital, where currently it is also provided at the Royal Liverpool. Outpatient clinics would not be affected and would continue to be offered at Whiston, Southport, and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, as well at Aintree and the Royal.

You can read about the proposed changes for each service area in more detail in this consultation booklet.

All the changes set out in this consultation have a strong clinical case, which means that doctors, nurses and other specialists have designed these proposals to further improve clinical care.

Share your views

Questionnaire
You can take part in this public consultation and share your views on the proposed changes to any (or all) of the five services (outlined in the consultation booklet) in the following ways:

Click here to fill out the questionnaire

If you would like a paper copy of the questionnaire, or need it in a language other than English, or in a format such as braille or large print, contact NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) using the details below.

Email: future.LUHFT@nhs.net
Phone: 0151 247 6406
Text: 07920 206386
Our email account and phone lines are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

(Please note: NHS Liverpool CCG is organising this consultation on behalf of all the CCGs and hospital trusts involved, so we’re the point of contact for all enquiries, not just those from Liverpool residents)

Online events

We’re also holding a number of online meetings, which will be a chance to hear more about the proposals set out in this booklet, and to take part in some focus-group discussions.

Details of these events are below. Please use the contact details above or email us using the links below to register your interest (include which event your are interested in the subject line).


Joining details will be circulated with attendees ahead of each meeting.

Next steps

When this consultation closes on 2 August 2022, the feedback will be considered and might inform changes or improvements to these proposals. NHS Liverpool CCG will oversee the writing of a consultation report, but it will be produced by an external organisation.

Once this report is available, it will be used to produce a final business case, which will need to be agreed by Liverpool University Hospitals.

The business case will then be presented to NHS commissioners (the organisations which plan local services) and to NHS England, which will decide whether the change should go ahead – it will consider the findings of the consultation report to do this.

As CCGs are due to be abolished at the end of June 2022, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for Cheshire and Merseyside will be the new commissioning organisation which will make the final decision.

Following this, local authority overview and scrutiny committees (OSCs) will be asked to look at the final business case – including the consultation report – to decide whether the change is in the best interests of their populations. A single OSC has been created for this piece of work, made up of representatives from Knowsley, Liverpool, and Sefton councils.

We hope to have a final decision about these services by autumn 2022. When we announce this decision, we will also publish the report from the public consultation on this page. If you would like to be notified of this, and any other updates about this engagement, you can sign up for email updates here.