THE Secretary of State may be called in if Trafford General’s urgent care centre is downgraded before the repeatedly-delayed £12m new A&E unit Wythenshawe Hospital is up and running.

Trafford and Manchester City councillors met with health chiefs from Central Manchester University Hospitals (CMFT) and Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to discuss the future of the Davyhulme hospital’s emergency unit on Tuesday night.

The meeting came just hours after it was announced that the multi-million pound ‘emergency village’ at neighbouring Wythenshawe Hospital will not be open for another two and a half years.

Plans for the A&E department were unveiled in 2014 but, despite having the funds, work has not yet begun at the site. During Tuesday’s meeting of the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee, chair Eddy Newman questioned the validity of the downgrade in light of the delay.

The nurse-led centre downgrade was first mooted in 2013 as part of the New Health Deal for Trafford and was on the understanding that neighbouring hospitals could absorb emergency cases.

“The Secretary of State agreed to closure of the A&E at Trafford General on the understanding that the urgent care centre would not close until the A&E at UHMS Wythenshawe opened,” said Cllr Newman.

He said that if further downgrade goes ahead before the redevelopment of Wythenshawe’s A&E department, the committee could deem this a ‘substantial variation’ from the original plan and ask the Secretary of State to intervene.

This referral could put a freeze on any downgrade action.

Communication was also high the agenda.

CMFT Chief Operating Officer Julia Bridgewater said that some messaging in recent media coverage was ‘unhelpful’. “Some messaging spoke about it closing; that can really impact on patients and staff,” she said.

However, Cllr Jo Harding, from Trafford Council, said the trust needed to take responsibility.

“I think, as an organisation, you have the responsibility to provide absolute clarity,” she said. “I specifically said don’t treat the public like fools. Be clear, be precise, be transparent.”

CMFT said they were not in the position to advise the public on the next steps as data determining patient flow and use had not yet been analysed.

“We could have been more proactive with messaging,” said Julia Bridgewater. “It’s the dilemma of going out with some information even if we don’t have the full picture.”

According to CMFT, the urgent care centre is currently seeing very low numbers of patients after 8pm. The average number of patients in the department per hour between 8pm and midnight is just two.

It was also reported that those attending the unit generally didn’t need the care of an A&E doctor.

Cllr Vivienne Ward blamed low footfall on lack of advertising.

“On at least two occasions we asked for increased advertising,” she said. “If people don’t know about it, they are not going to use it. We were completely ignored.”

Gina Lawrence, from Trafford CCG, refuted this claim by saying that Trafford General’s walk-in centre is over performing.

“People do know the services are there, they are going there, the question is are we signposting in the right way,” she said.

“There is no point having two identical models sitting next to each other. We need to ensure we get the most out of both of these areas.”

Gina said that a decision on the downgrade could not be made until the data has been presented to the Integrated Care Redesign Board, who will meet in two weeks.

She said the earliest change could be implemented would be June and no guarantee could be given that the Trafford General plans would be halted until the Wythenshawe A&E was upgraded.