A BUCKS health chief says the planned transfer of services out of Wycombe Hospital will not be derailed by public opinion - and only clinical evidence could force a U-turn.
NHS bosses have been repeatedly challenged about their consultation process over the last few weeks, with several people suspecting it will make no difference to the plans.
The formal consultation document outlines seven different options for organising services at Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospital. However, six of the options, including a do-nothing approach, have already been rejected.
The Bucks Free Press asked Stewart George, joint chairman of the NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cluster, what would happen if the consultation process found overwhelming public opposition to the overall changes.
He said: "I would like to say that public opinion would sway everything but this is clinically led. I’m saying that if somebody comes up with [clinical] evidence that we haven’t considered we’d have to look at it.
"Unless someone can provide us with evidence we haven’t seen, which the clinical commissioning board can have a look at, we would have to use what we’ve already got."
See related links for further details about the planned changes.
