Sweeping changes planned across region for emergency care provision
Scarborough: A new model of care is in place with a lower number of consultants and patients initially being seen by “advanced clinical practitioners” before being passed to consultants if needed. The trust has insisted this is not a downgrade and Scarborough has to have an A&E. Although conclusions have not been made, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says it will “increasingly focus on the provision of emergency medical and surgical services, with some planned services continuing to be delivered at Scarborough and others at Bridlington and at larger specialist hospitals” which include York, Hull and Leeds.
North Yorkshire: Darlington could lose its consultant-led A&E, sparking fears for North Yorkshire’s more rural communities who could have to travel two hours to Middlesborough instead.
Dewsbury: Dewsbury Hospital’s A&E looks set to be downgraded, with A&E care for the most seriously ill patients centralised at Pinderfields in Wakefield from this spring.
Huddersfield: Emergency care is being centralised in Halifax while Huddersfield’s A&E is being downgraded to an urgent care centre, treating minor ailments.
South Yorkshire: Four district hospitals – in Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Bassetlaw – are under review ‘to identify any services that are unsustainable, short, medium and long-term including tertiary services’, board minutes seen by The Yorkshire Post suggest, although the STP insists there will still be hospitals in these areas along with Sheffield.
South Yorkshire: Consultations separate to STPs are taking place on stopping some children’s operations in Barnsley, Chesterfield and Rotherham, as well as on Barnsley and Rotherham hospitals no longer providing hyper-acute stroke care.
Humber, Coast And Vale:
Hospital services including paediatrics and neonatal intensive care are to be reviewed, while specialities including stroke, major trauma, vascular, heart attacks and paediatric critical care are to have new standards introduced
Plans for “sustainable urgent/A&E model” will be drawn up, with the scope to be agreed in August 2017.
Leeds: The STP suggests “significant site re-development” of LGI includes major trauma and consolidation of the children’s hospital, while West Yorkshire will be the only emergency care “acceleration zone”.
Bassetlaw: Cutbacks to the children’s ward at Bassetlaw Hospital, closing the ward to new admissions overnight and at weekends over staffing shortages, have seen more than 10,000 people joining a campaign group opposed to the move. Officials say it is not linked to STPs.
Rotherham: CCG plans will see A&E, a walk-in centre and GP outof-hours centre combined into a single Integrated Emergency Centre, within a new ‘state-of-the-art’ unit.
Hull: Plans were passed in November to close two minor injury units (MIUs), as well as an out-of-hours GP service, together providing round-the-clock-care. Instead, an urgent care centre is to be created at the site of one of them. A consultation held on this had a response rate of less than one per cent. Also in Hull, work is underway on a £9m ‘integrated care centre’ which will bring together social care, residential care homes, social housing, and voluntary groups. Even firefighters will be based in the unit, to give advice to the elderly about falls.
East Riding: A CCG consultation closed last month into the closure of three MIUs, used by 13,000 people, to instead create two or three urgent care centres on alternative sites. There was huge local opposition led by MPs and local councillors, with a 10,000-strong petition and rallies. Campaigners saying they would have to travel up to 54 miles in a round trip to access care.
York: The 22-bed Archways Community Hospital closed in December, with care being delivered in the community instead.