A&E unit to reopen overnight as review carried out

Patients will again be able to use casualty from Monday between 10pm and 8am at Pontefract Hospital after its overnight shutdown last November.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust bosses have signed a deal with private firm Primecare for GPs skilled in emergency care to cover the department at Pontefract initially for 12 months.

But its long-term future remains uncertain. Plans are being drawn up for a sweeping reconfiguration of NHS services which would see the unit downgraded into an urgent care centre as part of efforts to ensure the viability of the trust which is due to run up debts of £26m in the year to March.

Trust interim medical director Richard Jenkins said: “We made a commitment to re-open the emergency department overnight at Pontefract and we are delighted to say that we have made good on that commitment.

“The team of GPs will work with our emergency medicine nursing staff and an on-site anaesthetist to assess and treat anyone who attends between 10pm and 8am. However if those people are critically ill or need to be admitted they will be transferred to Pinderfields Hospital as was the prior arrangement.

“It’s important that people continue to dial 999 in an emergency situation so that critically ill or severely injured patients are taken directly to the most appropriate A&E department.”

Chief operating officer Carole Langrick said: “The safety of our patients will always be our first priority. Last year we were unable to recruit enough emergency doctors to keep the service operating safely overnight.

“We are currently looking at options for the long-term future of emergency care at Pontefract as part of our clinical services strategy. No decisions have yet been made but we expect to be going to formal consultation on this and a range of other service changes early next year.”

Wakefield Council leader Coun Peter Box said: “I shared the widespread concern created when the department closed last year and patients were faced with long journeys to other hospitals. The re-opening of the service shows the trust is moving in the right direction to provide health services which local people say they need most.”