MP warns of risk of merging Rotherham hospital with another trust

Merger or acquisition is one of three options being considered by hospital bosses ahead of them submitting a recovery plan to regulator Monitor in December.

Wentworth and Dearne MP Mr Healey made the plea to health secretary Jeremy Hunt in a Commons debate on Tuesday.

He said: “How can patients and staff have any confidence in decisions about their services when they are taken by the Competition Commission on the overriding grounds of what is best for a competitive market and not what is best for patients?

“Will he learn from the failure of the merger between the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and take merger off the table as an option for Rotherham hospital?”

Mr Hunt said: “The competition authorities make decisions based on what is in the best interests of patients and do not hold competition as an overriding ideology.

“He is right that we need to work closely with those authorities to ensure that they have the expertise to take decisions in the right way and with trusts to ensure that they have the expertise to ensure that they do not stumble when they go through those processes.”

Rotherham Hospital’s other options are to press on with making the trust financially viable and sharing social care with the council.