1)  After discussion with ambulance service they would need 2 more crews to provide 24 hour and a rapid response vehicle to cover if acute services are removed from BDH.  Cost approx 750K to 1 million.

2)  They have looked to see if they spent the above money on upgrading anaesthetist cover at BDH they would need to employ 4 anaesthetists, which would cost  half a million pounds, but currently not enough work at BDH to justify spending this money, PCT would have to commission more services from our trust.

3) Looking at increasing work on Lloyd ward and changing it from day case ward to 5 day week ward.

4) Lynne Young who is looking at medical services at the trust, states that her vision that BDH becomes a centre of excellence for intermediate care.

5) 4 options being put to the board meeting on the 18th of December, more info will be on trust website next Friday and Ian mcinnes will meet with staff either next Thursday or Friday date to be confirmed.

the 4 options are 1) no change to service 2) CMU closes and acute services withdrawn 3) Use the money which would be used  to pay ambulance service to alter service provision but did not specify in detail 4) Hybrid model using recommendations from the royal colleges report recently published.

We asked how long a time scale it would be if the decision to close CMU was taken by the board, Ian stated that if the health scrutiny committee refer it to the department of health they would probably do this mid January and it usually takes 6-9 weeks for a reply to come back from department of health.

If the department of health agrees with the decision, then the trust would like to close CMU by the end of the financial year or as near to it.

If the department of health decision is that a independent review is needed then that process can take another 6-9 months and the trust can not do anything until a decision is made.

We then asked what would happen if staff on CMU left in the mean time, Ian McInnes stated that they had checked with department of health and the SHA and if the area is unsafe due to staffing then  the unit can be shut due to health and safety issues.