Hospital units to merge as demand increases

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs services in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury, is expected to incur a £26m deficit in the 12 months to next March after plunging £19m into the red in 2011-12.

Wakefield’s Pinderfields Hospital has come under particular pressure due to high demand for care, leading to sick patients being transferred from Pontefract to Dewsbury for treatment.

Under the latest moves, officials plan to transfer the long-term rehabilitation service for patients with neurological complaints from Pinderfields to Dewsbury and combined it with stroke services.

Managers hope the measure will release beds in Wakefield, reducing the need for transfers to Dewsbury where hospital chiefs were forced to open 76 more beds last winter to meet demand.

The changes are part of a strategy to reduce demand on hospital services that includes a target of reducing patients requiring emergency care by eight per cent. This involves GPs treating those with minor complaints and preventing others with long-term complaints from deteriorating.

Interim chief executive Stephen Eames said: “We are working towards a specialist rehabilitation service which will bring together the clinical teams involved in the services so that they can work closely together.

“This is good for patients and in the longer term may give us the opportunity to further expand and develop this specialist service.”

The neurological rehabilitation service covers Calderdale, Huddersfield and Wakefield, with some patients from other areas. About 100 people a year need treatment, sometimes staying months on the unit. In separate moves, officials plan to develop services at Pontefract Hospital for patients with eye complaints including glaucoma and cataracts. A service for those with age-related macular degeneration at Clayton Hospital in Wakefield will move to Pinderfields.