Hospitals facing radical shake-up

The moves, part of measures by the crisis-stricken Mid Yorkshire NHS trust to secure the long-term future of its hospital services, are likely to mean emergency care will be provided at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, while planned treatment is carried out at hospitals in Pontefract and Dewsbury.

A&E services at Dewsbury’s hospital face being downgraded and full maternity services in the town could be axed and moved to Wakefield.

Senior NHS bosses say increasingly radical changes are needed amid financial turmoil which will see the trust running up a £26m deficit by next March as each of the three hospitals effectively runs at a loss.

A range of emerging options are being drawn up under a clinical services strategy designed to cut the number of patients treated in hospital and stepping up care provided in the community, particularly for those with chronic long-term illness. Details are expected to be announced next month and will face a public consultation early next year.

The measures are likely to include making Pinderfields a centre for emergency and complex care.

Hospitals in Dewsbury and Pontefract will concentrate on planned surgery and diagnostic work, with a greater share of treatment undertaken at home, in care homes or other community facilities.

Stephen Eames, interim chief executive at the trust, said: “The scale of the issues facing this organisation means that we need to take a much more radical approach to ensure our services are viable now and into the future.

“By viable we mean services that are safe, give the best outcomes for patients, and that are affordable for the longer term.

“The minimum level of change currently required was identified in our previous clinical services strategy published in the autumn last year. That included consolidating inpatient women’s and children’s services and inpatient acute surgery at one main site.

“We are now considering more radical options in addition to those already put forward. This follows the example of other areas and includes bringing all emergency and complex services into one hospital. This would allow us to increase the level of planned and diagnostic services at our two smaller hospitals.

“We also considered how we can, together with our partners, arrange our services differently to make sure patients receive their care as close to home as possible. We are working much more closely with our GP colleagues right across the piece and developing clinical services together with them.”

GP David Kelly, chairman of the North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group, which will take control of the bulk of NHS spending from April, said: “These are very difficult messages for us all to hear and we need to help people understand why change is necessary.

“The priority now is to get to grips with the situation and agree the best way forward. Our first concern will always be to ensure the best outcomes for our patients.

“We also know all too well that there is not an unlimited pot of money so as commissioners we have to make sure NHS money is spent where it can do the most good.”

Mike Potts, chief executive of NHS Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield District, said: “We share a huge responsibility to protect the future of hospital services in this area and we would not be doing the best for our communities if we did not consider all possibilities.”

Hospital chiefs have set cost-cutting plans of £24m for the 12 months to March when no savings from the changes will be generated. In total, the trust must save at least £80m by 2015.