THE 12 Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have lodged a defence with the court to defend the Healthier Together decision.

Five doctors from Wythenshawe Hospital have formed a private company, Keep Wythenshawe Special, to challenge the decision to name Stepping Hill Hospital, in Stockport, as the fourth specialist centre for emergency abdominal surgery for Greater Manchester.

Five public bodies, NHS England, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, North Derbyshire CCG, High Peak Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council, have recently shown support to the programme and have applied to be ‘interested parties’ for the case.

Their involvement; however, it means the legal bill for tax payers will be considerably more than expected as all interested parties have had to instruct solicitors and Barristers.

Chris Brookes, chief medical adviser to Healthier Together, said: “Healthier Together is about raising standards for all patients when they need hospital treatment thereby focusing on removing variation in care across Greater Manchester.

“It is disappointing that the benefits to patients of ‘shared single services', which will mean clinicians working across organisational boundaries to provide reliable care are being compromised by a small number of doctors at Wythenshawe hospital, who appear disaffected by a clinical decision made by a constituted Committees in Common of the Greater Manchester CCGs “

The Healthier Together programme has stated consistently that there will be no changes to Wythenshawe Hospital’s specialised services.

This is refuted by the Keep Wythenshawe Special group.