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Opposition mounting over shake-up of hospital services
POLITICIANS have issued a chorus of disapproval against contentious plans to relocate key NHS services from a hospital in North Yorkshire’s county town.
Members of Hambleton District Council voted unanimously to support a motion moved by the authority’s leader, Coun Neville Huxtable, to oppose the proposed shake-up of services at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.
It was announced last month that inpatient paediatric care and a full maternity service could be axed at the hospital.
The proposals drawn up following a review would mean the majority of women would travel to Middlesbrough, Harrogate, York or Darlington to give birth - although uncertainty remains over the future of Darlington’s services.
The motion was backed during a full council meeting on Tuesday and claimed Hambleton’s residents are entitled to receive “medical care of the highest quality at a centre of excellence as close to their home as possible”. It also stated the rural nature of the district requires clinically-led maternity facilities to remain at the hospital as part of a “local hospital with a long-term future”.
The Yorkshire Post revealed yesterday that a protest rally will take place in Northallerton on May 5 and it is expected to attract over 3,000 people. But senior NHS officials maintained that keeping the status quo is not an option amid a need to streamline services. More than 1,250 babies were born in 2010-11 at the Friarage Hospital, making it the smallest maternity unit in the country. Leading specialists are warning it is unsustainable to maintain full paediatric services at the hospital which will have a knock-on impact on maternity care.
The review is being led by the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is made up of local GPs. One of the GPs and the CCG’s and shadow accountable officer, Dr Vicky Pleydell, stressed there is a need for a “real, open and honest discussion”.
She added: “We completely understand the local strength of feeling on this issue. As a group of GPs we are fully committed to the future of the Friarage Hospital and maintaining the fullest possible range of services there.”
More information is available online at www.nyypct.nhs.uk/friarage
email paul.jeeves@ypn.co.uk
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