Council leader highlights axe threat to hospital’s services

A team of clinical experts are due to visit the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton next week as part of plans which are being drawn up to consider the future of maternity and paediatric services at the site.

The hospital provides maternity services for 1,200 live births in area encompassing about 150,000 residents, including some of the most deeply rural communities in England in both the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

Both the maternity services and the paediatric services are highly regarded by Richmondshire mothers and mothers-to-be, many of whom choose to go to the Friarage even though the Darlington Memorial Hospital providing similar services might be nearer.

Richmondshire District Council’s leader, John Blackie, raised grave concerns over the review which he claimed would lead to a major downgrade in NHS provision in both Richmondshire and Hambleton.

Coun Blackie claimed that “the writing is on the wall” for the services, as a National Clinical Advisory Team is “usually called in to justify proposals of this nature”. He also maintained the accident and emergency department could be downgraded to an “urgent care centre” after a similar move was undertaken at Bishop Auckland Hospital.

Coun Blackie said: “I am extremely concerned that there should be any threat to paediatric and consultant-led maternity services at the Friarage. For some people, if having a baby, it would mean travelling 60 miles to hospital to have it. This is an unreasonable distance and for an event as natural as having a baby. I am more than worried that there is a team of national clinical advisors looking into this in these circumstances.

“It will be a very sad day for the Friarage if we end up losing these services. Over the last three years the Friarage has steadily had the urgent and unplanned healthcare services it provides cut, seeing them transferred to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

“So suspected heart attacks, stroke cases, all trauma cases including broken limbs requiring surgical intervention, and all children’s surgery are now dealt with at the James Cook, and ambulances by-pass the Friarage with patients who might be suffering from these ill health episodes.”

He added: “If we are not careful the word ‘hospital’ when describing the Friarage will be replaced by the word ‘clinic’.”

The South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which operates both the Friarage and the James Cook University Hospital, confirmed talks began in the summer with health chiefs in both Hambleton and Richmondshire to look at the long-term future of the services at the Friarage Hospital. The Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group has now asked the National Clinical Advisory Team, which provides a pool of clinical experts to advise on local NHS services, to visit the hospital next week.

The South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s chief executive, Simon Pleydell, said: “Demand for healthcare changes all the time and, as an organisation, we have to continually review the services we provide and how they are delivered, with the emphasis very much remaining on quality of care and patient safety. Clearly should the need for any major service change emerge, we would want to consult more widely with the local population as well as staff.”

The Yorkshire Post revealed in August that health chiefs had defended a major restructuring of stroke services amid concerns that life-saving treatment will come under severe strain.

Stroke victims from Hambleton and Richmondshire are now being taken to Middlesbrough instead of receiving treatment at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

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