Standing up for St Richard's

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 26th Jun 2008

Rally on Cathderal green 2006

Serious questions need to be asked about the scoring system used by the Primary Care Trust when it decided that Worthing should be the location for the one Major General Hospital for West Sussex

Issues such as access times were disregarded.

Worthing was given an extremely high score for deprivation - despite the fact that parts of Chichester, Bognor and Selsey are equally deprived.

A high priority was placed on tackling "health inequalities" but we believe that good health education and access to quality primary and community care are the key to tackling health inequalities.

However good the Worthing hospitals are assessments by impartial judges suggest that the award winning St Richard's Hospital is simply better. Why not build on excellence?

The County Council's Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee must test the scores, weighting and choice of criteria critically. It is of concern that not one member of that committee represents an area served by St. Richard's.

Officers of the District Council have produced an excellent report that demolishes the Primary Care Trust's case for Worthing. The Liberal Democrats support the call for a Judicial Review. Not only does the Primary Care Trust's decision appear to be flawed but there are questions also about the way it made the decision.