Womens' and Children's services at Maidstone Hospital

In May 2010 the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, published four criteria which needed to be satisfied if hospital reconfigurations were to be allowed to proceed. The support of GPs was one of them. On 22nd December 2010 he approved the reconfiguration of Womens' and Childrens' services at Maidstone Hospital in the face of overwhelming opposition from our local GPs. Helen Grant MP and other campaigners were dissatisfied with the lack of clear reasoning behind the decision and vowed to seek clarification. Despite several letters being sent to the Secretary of State no response was forthcoming.

The lack of clarity made the decision appear very irrational, which is one of the grounds for Judicial Review. Kent County Council's legal department made an initial assessment of the merits of such an action and felt that there may be a case to argue.

It was decided to commission a leading QC to produce an expert's opinion before the deadline for making an application for Judicial Review expired on Monday 21st March. Counsel emailed her note on the night of Thursday 17th March. She advised that to succeed on the grounds of irrationality it would have to be shown that the decision that the Secretary of State came to was ''so unreasonable that no reasonable or right thinking person could have come to it'. Regrettably, having considered all of the evidence surrounding the decision, Counsel concluded that the chances of success were low.

The following day, on the afternoon of Friday 18th March, the Secretary of State then provided further clarification of his decision in letters to Helen Grant MP and to KCC. Whilst these still failed to adequately deal with the GP issue, Counsel advised on Monday 21st March, the deadline day for issuing proceedings, that these letters eroded the grounds of 'irrationality' even further. It was then felt by KCC that any contemplation of litigation would be unwise.

Helen Grant said "The secretary of State's decision was wrong and there will be tragic consequences. I remain stalwartly opposed to the reconfiguration of services at Maidstone and I am critical of the manner in which the Strategic Health Authority chose to present its report to Andrew Lansley. I am on record warning of a kangaroo court and that is precisely what has happened. I am particularly dissatisfied with the Secretary of State's failure to follow his own criterion of GP support, and with his blatant resistance to respond to reasonable requests for clarification, only doing so at the last moment under threat of legal proceedings. On behalf of the thousands of people who deserve and need safe local facilities I will continue to work with our local GPs as they emerge into a commissioning force over the coming two years.

Helen Grant and KCC, still unprepared to give up the fight, sought a final attempt to seek concessions from the Secretary of State who conceded to having a meeting with her and Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, at 5.15pm on the afternoon of Tuesday 22nd March. The deadline for issuing proceedings had already passed but any decision as to whether or not legal action had commenced had not been published. There were frank exchanges. During the meeting Andrew Lansley stated that should local GP consortia come up with a viable alternative within the coming two years, there could potentially be an earlier devolution of specific commissioning powers relating to women and children services'. This opportunity is now being discussed with local GPs.