Study 1 design and methods

Chapter 5: Study 1 discussion

Chapter 3: Study 1 design and methods

Part II of the thesis outlines the findings of Study 1 and, in doing so, will seek to answer two of the four research questions:

1. What concerns are raised by local communities when proposals to reorganise A&E services are put forward?

3. What is the impact of current practices used to consult local communities about reconfiguration decisions?

The research questions build on the literature review and the conceptual framework described in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. There I highlighted how consultation processes are often protracted and hostile, perhaps as a consequence of differing stakeholder priorities.

Government documents and policies increasingly emphasise the role of ‘evidence’ and better consultation with the public as a potential way of addressing this – an approach which draws on the ‘deficit model’ of risk communication, which has been widely criticised elsewhere in the literature.¹¹⁴

Study 1 addressed these research questions by reviewing the process used to strengthen public engagement with the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Clinical Strategy (the BEH Clinical Strategy), which proposed changes to acute hospital services in North London. Its purpose was twofold: to map the concerns of the local community in order to describe the key issues and inform the design of Study 2; and to review the impact of current practices used to consult the public about reconfiguration decisions in the light of the empirical and theoretical literature about risk communication.

This chapter outlines the rationale for the methodological approach, the background to the BEH Clinical Strategy, and the methods used in the review. In light of the theoretical framework, it considers first the way in which the public responded to the reconfiguration proposals, and the key concerns they raised, and then the way in which they responded to the engagement process. I will first describe the local community’s key concerns in North London in Chapter 4, and then go on to review the findings about the engagement process in the light of the literature about risk communication in Chapter 5.

Rationale for the methodological approach

Study 1 makes use of a case study design – an approach that ‘facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its context.’ This design has become a commonly used strategy when

‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context.¹⁵⁵ This approach was chosen acknowledging the fact that, although many of the drivers of reconfiguration are common to health care systems across the world,¹⁰ individual reconfigurations cannot be separated from their particular history and unique blend of local circumstances.¹²The study involved a single case study: the proposed reconfiguration of acute hospital services in North London.

Case studies are concerned with gathering in-depth information from fewer cases, compared to surveys, which collect less in-depth information from a large sample. It is possible to use either a single case study, or multiple case studies. The exemplar single-site case study is Goffman’s participant observation within a psychiatric hospital, which resulted in theories of institutional behaviour.¹⁵⁶

Yin classifies case study research as exploratory, descriptive or explanatory.¹⁵⁵This study is a descriptive and exploratory single-case study, in that it seeks to map the concerns raised by the public when a reconfiguration is being considered and to explore the impact of current public engagement practices.

A range of data sources can be used in case study research, including documentation, archival records, interviews, physical artefacts, direct observations, and participant-observation. Each data source is one piece of the ‘puzzle,’ with each piece contributing to the researcher’s understanding of the whole phenomenon.¹⁵⁷

Study 1 sought first to capture the range of concerns raised by local communities when reconfiguration processes are being considered (research question 1) and, second, to critically review the techniques currently used in public consultation exercises (research question 3). To address these questions I carried out a content analysis of a range of documentary sources relating to a recent reconfiguration. This drew on work I carried out in 2010, providing independent academic input into a review of the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey (BEH) Clinical Strategy, which set out plans to reconfigure acute hospital services in North London. My input is described in more detail in Appendix 2. As part of the review, I was commissioned to produce a report describing the process used to strengthen public

engagement and documenting its key findings. The documentation I used to do this provided a rich source of data for a secondary analysis, outlining the views of a range of stakeholders.

Study context

At the time of the review in 2010, the Clinical Strategy had been debated for many years and it was described as a ‘test case for the NHS.’¹⁵⁸ Proposals to downgrade services at Chase Farm Hospital in north London were first raised more than 15 years ago. They included replacement of the emergency department with an urgent care centre and consolidation of women’s and children’s services at Barnet and North Middlesex Hospitals, which are each six to seven miles away to the west and east of Chase Farm respectively.

In July 2009, work had begun to implement the proposals, including building work on the North Middlesex site to accommodate increased patient flows. However, implementation was put on hold in May 2010, days after the coalition government came to power, when the then Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, declared a moratorium on reconfiguration programmes. He delivered his speech outlining the four tests reconfiguration programmes must now meet in a speech delivered from the steps of Chase Farm, and pledged to put an end to ‘top down’ bureaucratic processes.⁹⁰

The local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) began work to review the BEH Clinical Strategy against the four tests in the summer of 2010. The relevant key components of the process are briefly outlined here to provide context. In September 2010, a panel of clinicians, known as the Clinical Review Panel, was convened to review the clinical evidence underpinning the plans. The Panel consisted principally of local GPs, as well as clinician representatives from outside North Central London. They were asked to review each of the speciality strands affected by the proposals, in order to ascertain whether the case for change had altered in the three years since the original consultation.

Because local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) had not yet been established in the affected areas, all local GPs were invited to comment on the panel’s conclusions in order to gauge the level of support for the proposals. The commissioners were not required to carry out a full consultation, as this had previously been carried out in 2007. Instead efforts were made to strengthen patient and public engagement via a series of public meetings and a supplement in local newspapers explaining the rationale for the proposals. Local

involvement network (LINks) representatives were involved in assessing the strategy against the patient choice test.

The focus of Study 1 is the process used to strengthen public engagement with the proposals. In this section, I will first outline the Clinical Review Panel’s recommendations, as these were central to the public engagement process.

Clarity on the clinical evidence base

The Panel heard oral evidence from local clinicians working within the relevant specialties.

They also considered a portfolio of published evidence underpinning the service changes that were envisaged in the Clinical Strategy, which I had compiled, to ascertain whether any significant changes in wider circumstance or evidence had taken place since the consultation in 2007.

The Panel was asked to make a recommendation about the optimal configuration of services for each speciality strand on the basis of the evidence it received. Their recommendations are summarized below in Table 1.

Overall, the Panel concluded that the clinical case for change had increased since the original consultation. They noted that ‘no change’ would not be a realistic option because the clinical situation at that time was both unstable and unsustainable in terms of patient safety, clinical staffing and modern clinical practice. The subsequent engagement process focused on communicating the rationale for these ten recommendations.

Strengthening public and patient engagement

The Department of Health guidance about the ‘strengthened public engagement’ test was limited in its scope. It simply advised that local commissioners should engage the LINks and local authority Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees (HOSCs) to seek their views, as well as making public the outcome of any local review.⁹⁰

A proportion of this work was coordinated centrally by NHS Enfield, the PCT in the area most affected by the proposals. However, in each of the other affected areas (Barnet and Haringey) the process was supported locally by the relevant PCT. Patients in Hertfordshire were considered to be affected to a lesser extent, although there were efforts to engage patient groups in that region.

Table 1: The Clinical Review Panel’s recommendations about the BEH Clinical Strategy

Recommendation 1

The plan to consolidate inpatient services for children at Barnet and North Middlesex is supported. Running two inpatient services at both Barnet and Chase Farm is unsustainable in the medium to long term, particularly in terms of staffing.

Recommendation 2 The plan to concentrate neonatal care at Barnet and North Middlesex is supported.

Recommendation 3

The Panel supports the plan for the development of a consultant-led paediatric assessment unit on the Chase Farm site. However, the nature of this will depend on the configuration of other facilities at the hospital, including those for urgent care.

Recommendation 4 Separate neonatal and general paediatric rotas must be established at the Barnet and North Middlesex sites to ensure adequate cover is available out of hours, thus improving clinical safety.

Recommendation 5

The plan for obstetrician-led maternity services to be based at Barnet and North Middlesex is supported. The clinical argument for consolidating obstetrics and neonatal care on two sites is considered compelling.

Recommendation 6

To provide choice to as many women as possible, both units should develop new co-located midwife-led units. Routine antenatal and postnatal care can continue to be offered at a range of sites, including potentially new ones based in the community.

Recommendation 7 The plan for Barnet and North Middlesex Hospitals to provide major emergency services is supported.

Recommendation 8

The Panel agreed that a 24/7 full Emergency Department should no longer be provided at Chase Farm. A local urgent care service should be introduced to strengthen the services available to the community, along with the co-located GP out of hours service.

Recommendation 9 The plan for appropriate planned inpatient surgery to move to Chase Farm from Barnet and North Middlesex is supported.

Recommendation10 Day surgery can appropriately continue on all three sites.

Wider public engagement

As part of the process of wider engagement, a four page supplement which outlined the Clinical Review Panel’s conclusions and included an article written by the senior clinician who chaired the Clinical Review Panel outlining the need for change, was distributed with local newspapers. Local residents were also given the opportunity to hear the Clinical Review Panel’s findings and debate their recommendations at three public meetings in Enfield. The meetings were held at different times during the day and during the evening, over the course of six days, in a variety of locations. Each meeting was facilitated by an independent consultancy firm with experience of leading deliberative processes. At each session, the Clinical Review Panel’s recommendations and the evidence underpinning them were both presented by members of the Panel. Participants then had the opportunity to express their views in round-table small group discussions. They were asked for their views about the evidence underpinning the plans and how they felt the proposals might affect them. They were also asked whether they had any concerns about the proposals and what information or evidence they had to support these reservations. Meetings were not held in Barnet, Haringey or Hertfordshire; residents were instead directed to the meetings in Enfield.

Borough level engagement

Each of the PCTs sought to strengthen further the level of patient and public engagement locally, leading a process to engage a range of other relevant stakeholders in the review, including Local Authorities, local MPs, and voluntary and community groups. The views expressed by the public during the consultation process are described in more detail later in this chapter. However, the responses received from the public in each borough are briefly reviewed here.

In Barnet, documents were distributed to over 100 voluntary and community groups in the borough. One group responded, expressing a number of reservations about the proposals, including the ‘lack of evidence behind them’, the national problem of staffing, and the impact of the proposed planned care changes on the elderly. Similarly, in Enfield, an outline of the Clinical Review Panel’s findings was also cascaded to local voluntary and community groups as well as patient and public involvement mailing lists.

In Haringey, information was also sent to a number of voluntary and community groups in the area. A response from a local Pensioners Action Group queried why no public meetings

had been held in Haringey and raised concerns about both the possibility of services at North Middlesex becoming ‘overloaded’ as a result of changes to services at Chase Farm.

Methods

In order to map the concerns raised by local residents in North London, including their perceptions of the engagement exercise, I carried out a secondary analysis of a range of documents that I had previously used to compile the report reviewing the engagement process against the Lansley tests. The process to strengthen public engagement with the BEH Clinical Strategy took place between 20 September 2010 and 15 November 2010. At the end of that period, the BEH Clinical Strategy Implementation Team – the commissioners leading the review – provided me with documentation relating to the review from each of the PCTs. This included a short report documenting the engagement activities undertaken in each area, copies of stakeholder communications received during the engagement period, and copies of the raw data documenting the discussions that took place at the public meetings held in Enfield.

In Study 1, I specifically focused on correspondence and concerns raised by members of the public, rather than local politicians, because the thesis focuses on the response of the public. The following documents were used in my analysis:

 Reports from each PCT describing their engagement activities and summarising the feedback obtained (n=3)

 Report of the formal consultation process carried out across the region in 2007 (n=1)

 Report prepared by the London Communications Agency containing copes of media coverage relating to the on BEH Clinical Strategy published between 21 May and 10 November 2010 (n=1)

 Copy of pull out supplement included in the Times series newspapers distributed across the region on 20 October 2010 (n=1)

 Log of activity on the BEH Future website, which contained information relating to the review, between 20 September and 15 November 2010 (n=1)

 Log of phone calls and emails received by BEH Clinical Strategy team from members of the public, including copies of all electronic correspondence (n=84)

 Copies of correspondence from relevant Local Involvement Networks documenting their response to the review (n=4)

 Copies of both handwritten and typed notes taken by PCT staff tasked with taking notes from table discussions at the public meetings held in Enfield on 2 November (n=4 table discussions), 4 November (n=6 table discussions) and 8 November 2010 (n=6 table discussions)

 Copies of presentations (n=3) and handouts (n=3) used at the public meetings

 Public meeting attendance statistics (n=3)

Having reviewed all the documentation to identify feedback from members of the public, I then carried out a thematic content analysis. This involved documenting points relating to concerns raised by the public about a) the content of the proposals and b) the engagement methods used. I then examined each of these categories separately to identify the key themes.