Government orders G5 review

Great news today as Lib Dem Health Minister Paul Burstow announced that the Government has ordered a full independent review of Portsmouth Hospital Trust’s decision to close the G5 end-of-life care ward at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

Councillor Lynne Stagg and the other members of the Health Scrutiny Panel at Portsmouth City Council did a great job in referring the decision to the Secretary of State in the first place. Now an independent panel will conduct a full public review of the decision which is expected to take 3 months.

Further details of the review and a dedicated phone number will be released next week and I will publish them on here. For now comments can be emailed to info@irpanel.org.uk.

Given my experiences of end-of-life care with my father, I will certainly be sending my own comments and views to the panel. I urge anyone with experience of end-of-life and palliative care at QA to submit comments to the panel so that they understand the strength of feeling against the changes.