Poole councillors have written to the Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock MP. Here, in full, is their letter:

We write on behalf of the Borough of Poole Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee to support the referral made to you by Dorset Health Scrutiny Committee.

The details of the referral are set out in a letter to you dated November 5 2018, which was sent by Cllr Bill Pipe and Cllr Peter Shorland and in the attached referral document and supporting appendices.

A decision was taken by the Borough of Poole People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Health and Social Care) on December 17 2018 to support the referral made to you by Dorset County Council's Committee. This is not a separate referral to the Secretary of State by the Borough of Poole.

The key concern for Poole Committee is increased travel times for the South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. The concerns are set out comprehensively in the Dorset Referral documentation. This is in a context where the Dorset Clinical

Commissioning Group has decided that a future major emergency hospital for the Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole area should be located at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and not at Poole Hospital.

At present, accident and emergency, trauma, maternity and paediatric services are all provided at Poole Hospital and Royal Bournemouth Hospital provides accident and emergency and maternity services.

The Borough of Poole Full Council in July 2017 made formal representations to the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group that Poole Hospital should be the location of the future major emergency hospital. A key consideration in this decision by the council was that Poole Hospital affords safer and better access to local people both in Poole and in the Dorset area to essential services including accident and emergency, maternity and paediatric services.

In September 2017, the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group decided that Bournemouth Hospital should be the major emergency hospital and Poole, a major planned hospital. On December 17 2018, the Borough of Poole committee members considered the referral made to you by the Dorset Health Scrutiny Committee.

Senior leaders from the NHS in Dorset presented evidence to the committee with a key focus on travel times by the South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

Members of the public were also able to ask questions. The majority of these relate to safety and ambulance travel times.

The Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group presented evidence of a further and recent study undertaken into travel times and any potential risk in those travel times which would be lengthened by the relocation of accident and emergency, trauma and maternity services to Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

The Borough of Poole elected members decided that it was imperative to support the Dorset's Health Scrutiny Committee Referral to the Secretary of State on the following key grounds:

1) Committee and public are seriously concerned regarding the increase in ambulance conveyance time for some residents if the plans go ahead to locate the major emergency hospital at Royal Bournemouth.

Concerns centre on whether the increased travel time could put patients lives at risk.

The Dorset Clinical Commissioning and its NHS partners have undertaken further work to examine the risks to life of extended travel times. This study and its outcomes have not been evaluated independently by experts beyond Dorset NHS partners.

A referral by you of these issues and all available evidence to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel would afford an entirely independent scrutiny on a matter of very significant concern to members of the committee and the public in Poole and surrounding area.

At the meeting on December 17 2018, the committee was advised by the ambulance service representative that national standards for the timescales for ambulance conveyances have changed since the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group's business case was developed.

This is another reason why the committee would strongly recommend independent examination of the current and all available studies and their conclusions around patient safety and travel times.

2) The committee members considered that work undertaken by Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group on travel times and travel

planning in relation to the proposed future configuration of hospitals in the Poole/Bournemouth area had not taken into sufficient account major current and planned regeneration and development plans in Poole. Therefore, analysis of travel times and related issues, such as congestion, does not take into account key aspects of Poole's Local Plan, adopted by full council in November 2018.

As a consequence, there is concern that the analysis and its outcomes are not valid in the longer term.

3) The Borough of Poole Health Scrutiny Committee would strongly underline the serious impact of moving maternity services from Poole to Bournemouth in relation to travel times for Poole and many Dorset residents.

When the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group made the decision in September 2017 to relocate maternity services to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, NHS leaders informed Poole councillors that serious and detailed consideration would be given to locating a midwife led maternity provision at Poole Hospital.

At the meeting on December 17, the chair particularly asked for further information regarding maternity service provision at Poole Hospital.

No facility or provision was offered by the CCG.

NHS leaders confirmed that all maternity services will be located at Royal Bournemouth Hospital. This decision means that Poole parents' choice and access to maternity services will be detrimentally impacted by the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group's decisions.

Councillors welcome the commitment of substantial national capital funds to build new maternity facilities but strongly take the view that work carried out by the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group on travel times evidences that Poole Hospital should be the preferred site for maternity services as part of a major emergency hospital.

The committee believes every effort has been made to reach local resolution, before submitting this letter of support of Dorset's referral to you, and is grateful to local NHS leaders in Dorset for attending the lengthy committee meeting to present information and fully answer questions from the public, committee and other elected members.

We urge you to consider the Dorset referral in full and the concerns set out in this letter.

The committee requests an independent assessment of the matters of concern and particularly of all available and the most recent studies of the impact on patient safety of increased travel times for the South West Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust, if the major emergency hospital is located at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Jane Newell

Chair

People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Health and Social Care)

Councillor Vishal Gupta (Vice-Chair)

Councillor Malcolm Farrell (Committee Member)

Councillor Jennie Hodges (Committee Member)

Councillor Drew Mellor (Committee Member)

Councillor Marion Pope (Committee Member)

Councillor Louise Russell (Committee Member)

Councillor Ann Stribley (Substitute Committee Member)

Councillor Russell Trent (Committee Member)

Councillor Karen Rampton (Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing)

Councillor Janet Walton (Leader of the Council)