A retired doctor is the latest figure to demand answers about the future of a ward at a Yorkshire Dales hospital – which health chiefs have been accused of trying to close by stealth.
Dr Barry Brewster, who worked as a GP in Settle for over 40 years, has written to the chairman of North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, which has closed the 10-bed Harden ward at Castleberg Hospital in Giggleswick for six months while it pilot
s a hospital-at-home scheme.
The move triggered widespread outrage when it emerged that the trust would not make a decision on whether to carry out "significant maintenance work" it says is needed at the hospital until after the pilot.
Dr Brewster will address the trust's board meeting in Malton on Tuesday to ask that the ward be reopened until tenders and estimates for the repair work are concluded, and that it is only closed again while repair work is carried out which is essential to the operation of the ward.
He then wants to see it re-opened until the PCT's long-term plans can be realised.
Dr Brewster said: "Hospital at home may work in conurbations, where there is a local hospital to provide back-up, but the rural nature of North Craven means that hospital-at-home cannot replace all the services provided by Harden ward community beds. Complementary it may be, but to suggest that hospital at home is a complete solution is an insult to the intelligence of the people of North Craven.
"Nurses would have to travel too far to patients' homes dispersed over a wide area, many of which will not have appropriate equipment. Airedale General Hospital is too distant from North Craven for many patients and their families who do not have transport, particularly the most frail."
Dr Brewster said that there was widespread suspicion in North Craven that the proposed roof repairs were not urgent, and were merely a smokescreen to shut the Harden ward by stealth – an accusation the trust denies.
"What we are implacably opposed to is the PCTs' assumption that it has a right to use pre-emptive tactics to avoid the inconvenience of consulting about their future plans," he said.
A petition to the PCT, demanding that the ward be re-opened, has already been signed by more than 3,500 people.
A spokesman for North Yorkshire and York PCT insisted the PCT had a statutory duty to consult on major changes to service.
He said: "A survey of the estate indicated that patient and staff safety could not be guaranteed without the roof repairs. It also indicated that the required work could not be carried out with patients on-site. The PCT has no plans to close Castleberg Hospital; any decision of that magnitude would be subject to a full consultation as part of the long-term strategy of care services in the area.
"The hospital at home scheme is not a way for the PCT to close Castleberg Hospital (Harden ward) and sell off the land. The PCT is committed to using intermediate care beds in the area in the long-term."
The PCT insists that all staff working as part of the hospital at home scheme are able to deliver the same levels of care that would have been delivered to patients on the ward and that the same admission and discharge criteria were used for hospital at home patients as would have been used for patients being admitted and being discharged from the ward.
The trust spokesman added: "As the same service is being delivered in this case, albeit in the community rather than on a hospital ward, this is not a change in the levels or type of care patients are receiving."
The full article contains 633 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
