Anne McIntosh: Unhealthy prospects for community hospitals

Clearly, with an increasingly elderly population living in a sparsely populated and deeply rural part of North Yorkshire, funding is stretched very thinly. The current funding allocation to North Yorkshire and York is the 13th lowest of 152 Primary Care Trust areas and 12 per cent below our Strategic Health Authority average.

People greatly value their GP and care very passionately and emotionally about their local community hospital. Thirsk and Malton are well served by three such hospitals; Lambert Hospital in Thirsk, St Monica's in Easingwold and Malton Community Hospital as well as having access to the general hospitals – Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, Scarborough General Hospital and York District Hospital. Any threat, therefore, of closure or rumour of closure automatically sets alarm bells ringing.

A text book example of how not to proceed was demonstrated recently by NHS North Yorkshire and York who firstly claimed there was no question of Ryedale Ward at Malton Hospital closing.

Then, following a decision taken on September 23, the beds were removed from the ward by stealth until it was effectively closed on October 19. Even when facing the Health Minister and myself, as the local MP, at a meeting in the Department of Health, the Primary Care Trust representatives could not bring themselves to say that the ward was closing.

Despite this closure being termed a "pilot scheme", I am mindful that once a ward has been closed, it is then much more difficult to re-open it again.

Of course, what should have happened was for the Primary Care Trust to consult those affected; the GPs, the nurses, representatives of the hospital, patients and their loved ones in an open and transparent way. This is echoed in the Government pledge that, in future, all service changes must be led by clinicians and patients, and are not to be driven from the top down.

This is why I have called the meeting this Friday with the Primary Care Trust and those who are most affected over the closure of Ryedale. I hope at the end of the so called "pilot scheme", there will be the full, transparent and open consultation which should have taken place prior to the closure.

I am delighted to have extracted from the PCT that in the event of a bed crisis at Scarborough General Hospital, Ryedale Ward will re-admit patients this winter.

Feelings are running so high that more than 1,500 residents have signed a petition, which I have presented to the House of Commons, that strongly objects to way in which the PCT have implemented the bed closures without public consultation. I have also been struck by the weight of opposition to this closure in my constituency mailbag.

I see this ward closure as part of a wider pattern which is emerging where services at community hospitals and GP practices are being removed or scaled down without adequate consultation.

The Minor Injuries Unit at both Lambert Hospital and Friary Hospital in Richmond have been removed and we await to hear this week's decision on the unit at St Monica's.

The diagnostic services at Malton Hospital have been stopped and the diabetes test strips service could be stopped, meaning diabetes sufferers will no longer be able to check their own levels. Indeed, all enhanced services in the final quarter of the year may be under threat.

My fear is that, given the predicted deficit in the PCT, there is a financial motivation behind both the recent trend of events and the subsequent lack of consultation. In particular, I am worried that the budgets are being cut so radically that there might be insufficient funds to run all the services by the time the GP commissioning commences. Moreover, if this trend of service cuts continues, then our community hospitals could be reduced to a size where it is no longer viable to keep them open. In a rural area such as ours, where access to a facility or service is key, consequences such as these could be disastrous.

Ahead of my debate on ward closures tonight, my long-term ambition for the health service on which we all depend is that the clinical need of the patient must be at the heart of our health care.

Anne McIntosh is the Conservative MP for Thirsk, Malton and Filey. She is holding an adjournment debate in the House of Commons today over the decision-making procedures for ward closures.