Protestors predicted the issues that are now becoming apparent at Dewsbury and District Hospital - Ismail Mulla
One of the first stories I covered fresh out of journalism school was a protest about the downgrading of my local hospital. The protests on a chilly Saturday morning in October 2012 were centered around the downgrading of Dewsbury and District Hospital.
The hospital was to become a midwife-led birth unit for low-risk births and poorly children who need hospital admission would be taken to Pinderfields, along with adults who need emergency surgery.
There would be further protests and representations to Parliamenterians, yet two Tory Health Secretaries ignored all these people who went out in all conditions to register their concerns.
The then-government said that these difficult decisions were necessary. That hospital trusts such as Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust had to find millions in savings.
The consequences of cuts to hospitals such as Dewsbury were of no concern to Westminster politicians. Unfortunately, those consequences are now coming home to roost.
In 2023, 19-month-old Raisa Cristina Iordan died at the hospital. A coroner’s report released late last year criticised the hospital’s processes following the death of the child.
Raisa died after she was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis, which causes swelling of brain tissue. She was taken to Dewsbury and District Hospital 18 days before her death with what was initially suspected to be a viral illness, before later being transferred to Sheffield Children's Hospital when the seriousness of her condition was discovered.
The hospital "missed opportunities to escalate" Raisa's care and a doctor's assessment of the toddler was "limited" and of "poor quality". A radiologist had incorrectly reported that a brain scan showed she had no inflammation.
It begs the question, if services had not been downgraded then would Raisa have suffered the same fate?
On top of this a string of staff members and medical organisations have been raising concerns about the safety of critically ill children at Dewsbury and District Hospital since early 2024.
The Yorkshire Post has seen evidence of major concerns being raised at the hospital since February 2024, with a senior health professional at the hospital telling this newspaper that in their opinion, little has been done to rectify the issues since this time.
Concerns raised by clinicians include the availability of qualified staff at the site to take care of critically ill children, particularly during out-of-hours periods.
The death of one child is one too many. And as this newspaper questioned, why has little been done to rectify the issues highlighted by professionals to date?
Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust says it is currently reviewing its clinical models across the Trust and agreed funding for over a dozen more staff. However, the Trust needs to win over the confidence of patients and their families. And as such it needs to work fast to address the issues that have been identified by medical professionals.
But I can’t help but come back to those protestors who braved the cold on that day in October or the subsequent protests that were ignored. Some even tried passing them off as raving Labourites who were only protesting because they had it in for a Conservative-led coalition government. Those people are owed an apology because clearly children are at risk of being let down.
Even if Dewsbury and District Hospital does manage to get on top of the issues that have been identified, there is the question of why people in a district with a sizable population ultimately have to end up at a hospital ten miles away?
The sad reality is that despite austerity stripping service from communities, the NHS has needed more and more funding. That’s not to say that any government should be profligate when it comes to spending on the NHS but serious questions need to be asked as to the consequences of cuts. Are savings really being made in the right areas?
I experienced first-hand the consequences of the downgrading of Dewsbury Hospital’s A&E back in 2022 when I suffered from an outbreak of shingles. I presented at the hospital, only to be sent home and told to take some paracetamol. A night of agony later my father took me to Pinderfields the following day instead.
The doctor on call there took all of two minutes to diagnose me, prescribed the relevant medicine and also referred me to the eye clinic there because she was worried about my vision being potentially impacted.