Axe looms larger for hospital services

NHS North Yorkshire and York directors backed a formal consultation over measures which would see the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton no longer provide round-the-clock paediatric services. This would have a knock-on impact on maternity care, forcing hundreds of higher-risk women to deliver at hospitals further afield.

Crucially, officials agreed that no change in services was not an option, which means the consultation is unlikely to include any alternatives to retain full services.

Doctors at the hospital and local GPs have recommended a move to the reduced service amid concerns over shortages of both consultants and middle-grade doctors, warning retaining existing services was not affordable, cost-effective or clinically sustainable.

The plans have triggered huge opposition, leading to a mass demonstration in Northallerton over concerns about journeys for women in labour to hospitals in Darlington, Middlesbrough or Harrogate as well as for children with multiple health problems.

If health chiefs decide to downgrade services, the move is set to prove a big test of ministers’ willingness to approve controversial reconfigurations as the local MP is Foreign Secretary William Hague.

A meeting in York yesterday heard a number of pleas to retain services at the hospital, which has one of the smallest maternity units in the country with around 1,250 births a year.

But primary care trust (PCT) chief executive Chris Long said there could be no consultation on proposals which had no prospect of being implemented.

Instead directors agreed to press ahead with two options for a paediatric short-stay assessment unit and midwife-led maternity service with full outpatient and community services, or an alternative without the short-stay unit.

A final decision following the consultation could be made by the PCT next spring.